The Tournament of Friendship
by ChristianDragon
Summary: Sequel to Desperate Love. Ash and the gang all arrive in a city hosting a pokemon tournament with one winner becoming ruler of the city for a year. But once the tournament begins, friendship is put to the test and some relationships may not last.
1. Prolouge: A Buneary's Misery

**After a long period of waiting, here's the sequel to Desperate Love. Though I do not own pokemon, I do own some new characters who will eventually show up in this story. This takes place some time after the Wallace World Cup Tournament.**

The Tournament of Friendship

Prologue to a Story

I could feel the rain pelting upon my head, the feel of wet fur as it dampened quickly. The cold, chilling wind numbed my entire body. It was almost like I couldn't feel anything but the chilling rain falling upon me. I shivered every now and then, freezing cold and no place to go to get warm.

Up above, clouds of darkness covered the sky. Not a ray of sunlight shone through. I remained where I stood, gazing down into the reflection of the puddle of myself as it stared directly back up at me.

The first thing I noticed that my fur was completely damp and my fluff was sagging slightly, the water being soaked up like my fluff was like a sponge. Next thing I could see were my ears. They both drooped down along each side of my face. The fluff at the tips of each ear were also sagging, exactly like the fluff covering my lower body.

Moving along, I took a good look at my face. Where there should have been a bright, cheerful smile, there was a sad frown in its place. Where my eyes should have been full of happiness and joy, they were dead and lost, like all hope had left them.

My feet were freezing cold in the icy cold water as I continued to stare at my reflection. Inside, I could feel nothing, nothing but the beating of a hurting heart. It felt torn apart inside, like I was in the middle of an icy vortex of snow and wished to stay there. That's how alone I was feeling at this moment. No comfort, no warmth, no one to love me and be there for me.

I shivered again as the cold seeped through my fur and made contact with my bare skin underneath. I could feel the mucus running down from my nose. I didn't bother to raise an arm to wipe it away. I wanted nothing more to do than to cry, but no tears could be found within.

Suddenly, I heard water making splashing noises from behind me, though I was still in a trance, like I was off in another world. A hand being placed very gently upon my shoulder snapped me out of said trance and I slowly turned around to stare into the beautiful eyes of the only pokemon I let myself fall for by accident; the only pokemon I've been with long enough to allow me to screw up everything I once had.

I continued to tremble from the cold as I looked his strong, muscular body over and began wondering why I ever fell for such a pokemon as him. The words he spoke to me were so convincing, so gentle, yet so poisonous. I continue to stare into his eyes of triumph and wanting, knowing exactly what was going to happen next.

"Come with me," he breathed in a whisper as he slid his hand down to my paw and grasped it. He took a step back, trying to lure me to where he wanted me to go, but I stood firmly in place, keeping my legs stiffened so that I wouldn't move. I looked into his eyes again and I saw no sign of confusion. All I saw was the look of determination.

"I said come with me," he said a bit more determined.

He took another step back and got me to budge a bit. He began growling low as he began to pull a bit more tighter. I tried standing my ground, but he was much too strong. I felt his hand leave my paw for a split second before I felt both his hands grab my waist and fling me up over his shoulder.

I began kicking my feet around, struggling desperately to get out of his grasp, but he was a lot more stronger. I looked for a weak spot as he walked towards where he wanted to go, but I knew that there weren't many weak spots on a pokemon like him. However, my paws were free, so I found the only spot I could hit and prayed that my blow would take effect.

Raising my paw in the air, I quickly brought it down with full force with as much strength I could draw and made a blow with the back of his neck. The effect must have worked, for I rolled off his shoulder the next second and watched as he rubbed the back of his neck. He turned towards me, eyes glaring with rage and hatred now.

"You shouldn't have done that," he seethed through his teeth.

I barely knew what happened next. I felt a sharp sting slap across my face as all my strength diminished. My body wouldn't respond to movement. I could only lay in the ice cold puddle as I watched him place his hands around my throat. The look of rage and hatred remained in his eyes before they turned to looks of amusement as a smirk spread across his face.

"I'm going to enjoy watching you suffer," he whispered as he lowered his head down to my ear. "I will make you mine."

All I could remember next was the blackness of the dark enclosing all around me. His look of amusement was the last thing my eyes saw. My mind flashed through all the events that led up to this moment and the choices I made to wind up here.

(_"If I only fixed the mistake that cost me, none of this would be happening,"_) my last thoughts echoed through my mind as I slowly entered he void of darkness.


	2. Back Tracking

Chapter 1: Back Tracking

__

(Weeks earlier)

It was a bright and sunny day per usual. Not a cloud in the sky could be seen. The sky was clear blue and the sun sent its warm rays of radiation down upon the Earth to warm it up. A few pokemon could be seen now and then playing with one another on a nice day such as this. Others were seen basking in the sun upon the warm rocks heated by the sun.

Those who were playing stopped briefly and stared at some passing shadows. Those basking opened their eyes and remained motionless to wait and see what would happen. When nothing did happen, the activities resumed, the shadows passing on in a general direction.

The shadows did not come from a cloud, being that there wasn't a single cloud to be seen, but from some traveling companions aiming for a destination. There appeared to be three of them as well as a creature sitting upon a shoulder of the three.

The creature was yellow with a lightning shaped tail, red circles on each side of its cheeks, and long pointed ears with a black color at the tip of them. Upon his body was a huge scar lined diagonally beneath his chest. The shoulder the creature sat upon belonged to an eleven year old boy with black messy raven like hair, covered by a baseball cap. He wore a black T-shirt with a jacket over it, jeans and sneakers.

On his right side was a girl with long blue hair covered by a small white cap. She wore a dress with a pink skirt, long stockings, and boots. On the boy's left was a taller boy a few years older than him with spiky brown hair. He wore a green shirt with an orange vest, khaki pants, and shoes as well. The girl, at the moment, had her eyes closed, a smile upon her face as they continued walking.

"The sun feels so good, doesn't it guys?" she asked.

"You got that right," the tall boy replied. "After all, it is getting to be about summer time. About another week or two and the hottest season of the year will be here."

"And the wind feels absolutely wonderful," the girl said, opening her eyes. "What do you think, Ash?"

The other boy with the creature turned his head towards her and said, "It does feel warm. I prefer the spring time though."

"To each his or her own, I suppose," the girl said. "Hey Brock, do you think we can stop for a while and let our pokemon out for a bit of fun?"

"I would agree," the tall boy replied, now known as Brock. "But we're close to the nearest city. Another mile and we should be there."

"What's the name of that city again?" Ash asked.

"I believe it was called Angelinic City," Brock replied.

"Angelinic City," Dawn said, marveling at the name. "That's a beautiful name for a city."

"What's in Angelinic City anyway?" Ash asked.

"Angelinic City's known for being the only city ever to have a mansion for pokemon only," Brock told him. "Inside, there are all these toys pokemon can play with and new friends they can make and all the boys and girls they can date. Why don't I have a girlfriend?"

Ash and Dawn stopped and stared at Brock at his outburst as he cried.

"Well," Dawn said, turning away from Brock. "I really like the description of this mansion. Perhaps our pokemon will enjoy themselves and make some new friends while they're there."

"What do you think, Pikachu?" Ask asked. "You up for a little fun?"

("Oh yeah!") Pikachu said, pumping his fists inward with determination.

"They deserve it after all," Dawn said. "With all the battles and contests we've been through, I can't seem to recall the last time they even got a break. And besides, it will give Pikachu some action what with his condition and all."

"I like that idea," Ash said.

("Me too,") Pikachu said happily.

"Looks like Pikachu agrees," Ash said. "And besides the others could use a rest as well."

"And I can finally flirt with girls while Croagunk's at that mansion too," Brock said, recovering from his outburst.

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" Dawn asked. "Let's go." She took off running after saying that, adding, "Last one there has to buy whatever I want."

Ash, Brock, and Pikachu were startled at first, but took off running after her.

"So Brock," Ash said as he ran. "What do we do while our pokemon get to play?"

"Whatever we want to do," Brock replied. "We'll be as free as a Butterfree, so to speak."

"It's going to be weird having Pikachu away from me for a while," Ash said. "But I'm sure I'll be fine."

"I'm sure as well," Brock said as the two reached the top, catching up with Dawn and Pikachu.

"Looks like you two will be buying for me for the whole week," Dawn said with a laugh.

"A whole week!" Ash moaned. "There goes our money."

"Ah don't worry about it," Brock said. "We'll manage. Meanwhile, why don't you take a look down?"

Ash and Dawn looked towards where Brock was pointing and gazed down upon the city they were heading too.

"Wow!" Dawn said. "That's a huge city alright. And that must be the mansion far over on the left side."

"You're right," Ash said, looking towards where a huge house stood out among the rest of the city. "It's huge."

"Well come on you two," Brock said. "Let's head down to the Pokemon Center before letting our pokemon out to play."

"O.K.," Ash and Dawn said together.

Pikachu hopped back up on Ash's shoulder before they all headed down into the city.


	3. Angelinic City

**To all the readers who have been wating for this story to continue, it's finally here. It took me a little longer to get it done than I expected though. I've put myself in a situation I need to get out of fast, but it's all good because now I can update faster, hopefully, with no problems. So, here's the next chapter and please leave your reviews. Enjoy!**

Chapter 2: Angelinic City

Angelinic City, the largest city ever in thr Sinnoh Region, is probably the only city ever to have everything that one doesn't find all the time in each city or town someone walks into. For instance, some cities have barbershops, bookstores, and beauty salons whileother cities didn't. For this city, however, it had everything that one could possibly imagine. There were barbersopd, bookstores, beauty salons, and even a park. There was even a Pokemon Gym and a Pokemon Contest building there. In fact, if one tried to look for something that was in other cities that wasn't there, they would find out that Angelinic City had that as well. And as Ash, Dawn, Brock, and Pikachu wandered through the city, they looked around, amazed at the many stores and such that were in the city.

"I can't believe this!" Dawn said with awe. "It's like they have everything in this city."

Brock took out his Pokemon Guidebook and searched through it, stopping ona page that apparently had info on the city. "You're right," he said. "They do. It looks as though they don't have one thing missing from this city that you see in other cities."

"You mean they have grocery stores, bookstores, and beauty salons?" Dawn asked.

"The do," Brock replied with a nod.

How about a Pokemon Gym?" asked Ash.

"They have that too."

"Pokemon Contests?" Dawn asked. "Restaurants? Even a flea market?"

"Even a flea market," Brock answered her.

"This is the best city ever!" Ash said. "What's the Pokemon Gym like?"

"Well," Brock said, peering back into his guidebook. "It doesn't give out any information about the gym. Perhaps we should stop by an info station and grab some brochures."

"Shouldn't there have been one on our way in?" Dawn asked.

"You know you're right," Brock said. "We must have passed it up."

"Well we'll get back to later," Ash said. "Right now, I want to go see what this mansion is like."

"Me too," Dawn said as they continued walking and asking Brock what else Angelinic City had. His response was such a shocker to the two as they neared the mansion.

"A golf course, a poice station, a Pokemon Center, and even a hospital for humans," he said.

"I bet they even have a fire stationaround here too," Dawn said.

"That must be it over there," Ash said, pointing towards a building to where big, red, shiny trucks sat in a garage.

"WHOA!" Brock yelled suddenly without warning, causing Ash, Dawn, and Pikachu to jump.

"What?" Dawn asked. "What is it?"

"Nothing," Brock said quickly, shutting the book as an embarrassed look came over his face. "It's nothing at all."

"Aw come on," Dawn said, knowing something was up as she began teasing him of what he was hiding. "I bet it has something to do with girls."

"Perhaps," Brock said.

"Give it here," Dawn said, trying to now grab the book as Brock tried keeping it out of her reach.

"No," he said.

"Come on," Dawn pleaded. "Not even a small peek?

"I said no Dawn," Brock said as the scene continued. All the meanwhile Ash just stood there dumb-founded as well as PIkachu.

_"Are we ever going to get to the mansion?"_ he wondered.

________________________________________________________________________________________

A little while later,after Dawn stopped pestering Brock, the three all stood before the gates that led straight up to the mansion. "It doesn't look so big from here," Dawn said. "It just looks like a normal mansion."

"Just wait until you get up close," Brock said. "Then you'll see just how really big it is. And the inside is even bigger Isn't that right, Ash?"

"I suppose so," Ash replied.

Dawn sighed before saying, "I wish we these gates would open so we could go in."

("Me too,") Pikachu said, also sighing.

"So how do you suppose we get in?" Ash asked.

"Beats me," Brock replied.

"Have you tried ringing the doorbell?" a new voice asked. The three looked towards their left to see a rather well built, good looking boy standing there. He had neatly combed back brown hair and he was dressed rather fancy, almost like he was going to a party, or coming back from one.

"Um, excuse me," Ash said. "Do you happen to know who lives in this mansion?"

"I sure do," the boy said with an English accent as he turned to face the three. "Me. Tyler Ronando at your service. How may I help you?"

"We heard that this mansion was a play house for pokemon," Dawn said.

"Ah!" the boy Tyler exclaimed. "And so it is. May I have the name of such a wonderful young lady such as yourself?" As he was saying this, he walked over to her and lifted up her hand, leaning forward to kiss it.

"M-My name's D-Dawn," Dawn said, a little flabbergasted.

"A pleasure," Tyler said with a smile as he stood straight up again, turning his attention to Ash and Brock. "And you two boys must be her friends, I presume?"

"We are," Ash said. "My name's Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town."

"Pallet Town you say?" Tyler asked, shaking hands with Ash. "I believe that is in the Kanto Region, is it not?"

"It is," Ash replied.

"And I'm Brock," Brock spoke up. "Also from the Kanto Region. I was once the Pewter City Gym Leader."

"Ah!" Tyler said in another voice of exclaimation. "This is wonerful! I must invite you all into my along." He then hit a switch on the side of teh gates, which activated the gates to open for them to walk through. As the gates were opening, Tyler had then taken notice of Pikachu sitting upon Ash's shoulders.

"Oh hello," he said. "Dind't see you sitting there."

"Oh!" Ash said, remembering Pikachu. "This is PIkachu. He's been the first pokemon I've had since I began my quest to become a Pokemon Master."

"You're trying to become a Pokemon Master?" Tyler asked as the group all walked toward the mansion. "I've seen many people following the same path such as you, Ash, but all thier dreams shatter after they make it so close to becoming it. Very few can make it."

"Well I'm going to be the first to try," Ash said. "I've been ranked in teh Top Sixteen in the Indigo Plateau, won a trophy on teh Orange Islands, and almost even made it through the Johto and Hoenn Leagues."

"Amazing!" Tyler said with interest. "I've never met anyone before who's had such determination such as yours."

"You'd be surprised how much I've been through," Ash said. "Brock's been with me throughout most of the whole journey to become a Pokemon Breeder."

"You know how to treat pokemon?" Tyler asked.

"I learn new techniques and recipes from other breeders," Brock replied.

"And what about you, Dawn?" Tyler asked. "Where are you from and what is your goal?"

"I'm from Twin Leaf Town trying to become a top coordinator like my mom," Dawn told him.

"So in other words you're just starting out," Tyler stated.

"Yeah," Dawn said sheepishly. "So tell us, what's it like living in Angelinic City?"

"Oh it's wonderful!" Tyler exclaimed. "So much to do everyday whterh you go off and play golf or take a walk in the park or even take up karate or dancing."

"They have those here too?" Dawn asked excitingly.

"It's Angelinic City," Tyler said, spreading out his arms. "There is nothing that is left out that you may find in other cities." The three, plus PIkachu, stood there, gaping in awe as Tyler said all this.

"Do you think we could have a tour?" Ash asked, recovering from his awestruck expression first.

"Certainly," Tyler said. "But first we must let the pokemon out to play."

The gang soon neared the mansion and began walking up a flight of stairs. Dawn looked up and went wide-eyed at how huse the mansion was. "Bet it's huge now, huh Dawn?" Brock asked. All Dawn could do was nod her head before they all went in.

Upon entering, pokemon were seen walking about and playing around, chasing each other and riding toy bikes and cars. The trio ws shocked at the size of the mansion, along with seeing pokemon they haven't seen in forever running about the place.

"Look at the size of this mansion!" Dawn said. "It's huge!"

"And the pokemon," Ash said. "There are so many. How do you manage to sleep with all this commotion going on?"

"Soundprof walls," Tyler replied with a light shrug. "Pokemon have the time of thier life around here, especially during this time of year."

"Why's that?" Ash asked.

"Ash," Brock said. "Don't you remember what Professor Oak said back in Ever Lake City some weeks back?"

"It's been that long," Ash said. "You can't expect me to remember everything people say."

"Well we heard that there was some sort of tournament happening here soon," Brock told Tyler. "I'm sure you know about it."

"Of course I know about it," Tyler said. "I'm the one who hosts it."

"Say what!?" all three said in surprise.

"I'm the winner of the tournament every year," Tyler said casually. "I always go all out and hope someone comes along and manages to defeat me, but I always end up the victor in the end."

"So how soon will the tournament begin?" Ash asked.

"I have it happening at the beginning of next week," Tyler replied. "Which is exactly three days from now."

"So does that mean we're too late to sign up?" Ash asked worriedly.

"Not at all," Tyler reassured him with a smile. "The sign-ups don't meet deadline until tomorrow at noon. I'll get you all down there by the end of the day. Don't worry."

"Well that's a relief," Ash said. "So anyway, I guess we can release our pokemon now, right?"

"Be my guest," Tyler said with a gesture of his hand.

"All right everyone!" Ash said, grabbing all his pokeballs from his waist. "Come on out!" Five bursts of light shot forth from the pokeballs, revealing five different creatures once the light faded. In addition to Pikachu, the next creature was a bird with a very weird hair style upon its head known as Staravia. The third creature was an orange monkey with fire for a tail known as Chimchar. The fourth creature was an otter with two tails known as Buizel. The fifth creature was a bat with a poison barbed tail known as Gliscor. And the final creature Ash had was a giant turtle known as Grotle.

"My turn," Dawn said, releasing her pokemon in the form of a blue penguin known as Piplup, a bunny with fluff on its lower half of its body and upon the tips of each ear known as Buneary, a squirrel with spikes on its tail known as Pachirisu, a monkey with two tails known as Ambipom, and a pig like pokemon known as Swinub.

"You guys come out too!" Brock said, releasing his pokemon. From his pokeballs came a purple toad with barely any expression known as Croagunk, a walking tree known as Sudowoodo, and a round, pink pokemon known as Happiny.

"You all certainly caught a lot," Tyler said. "They all look rather healthy, though I do happen to notice that there is a tremendous scar on your Pikachu, Ash."

"It's a long story," Ash said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Well perhaps we can talk about it over lunch then?" Tyler suggested. At his words, the empty sounds of stomachs growled loudly, causing embarrassment for the three trainers.

"Guess we haven't eaten for a while," Dawn said embarrassingly.

"Well then I know this wonderful restaurant you all will enjoy," Tyler said. "We can take my car. Beats walking."

"Sounds great," Brock said.

"Pikachu," Ash said, turning to his pokemon. "You keep an eye out on the group while we're gone, O.K.?"

("Will do,") Pikachu said with a salute.

("I know he'll keep an eye on me!") Buneary said as she cuddled up with Pikachu, giving him a small peck on the cheek. Pikachu could only smile.

"Oh!" Tyler said. "Almost forgot. If your pokemon need anything at all, my Machop will be able to assist them. Go!" Throwing a pokeball high into the air, all watched as Tyler's pokemon took form of a well built, good looking, biceped Machop upon the the floor.

("You rang?") he asked his master.

"Machop," Tyler siad. "I need you to look after things while I'm showing these three the town, especially their pokemon. They're special guests competing in the tournament."

("I got it,") Tyler's Machop said.

"Thanks a mil," Tyler said. "Or two." Then he and Machop laughed over this for a minute.

"What's so funny?" Dawn asked.

"It's just an inside joke," Tyler answered her. "But enough stalling. Let's go!"

"We'll be back later you guys," Ash called over hs shoulder as he walked out the door. "Have fun!


	4. Playtime in the Mansion

Chapter 3: Playtime in the Mansion

("Well now,") Machop said, turning to the group of pokemon as the door shut behind the trainers. ("Allow me to introduce myself. As you all know, my name is Machop, Tyler's pokemon. I keep an eye out on what goes around when my master is not here.")

("And what happens when both of you aren't here?") Grotle asked.

("Huh?") Machop asked.

("I asked what happens when both you and your trainer aren't here,") Grotle repeated. ("Who watches the pokemon then?")

("Uh,") Machop said, a sweat drop forming on the back of his head. ("You know, I'm not quite sure about that. Maybe Tyler knows. Anyway, feel free to roam about in the mansion. There's a playroom in one room, we have an outside garden, a swimming pool, etc. You are allowed upstairs on the second floor, however, Master Tyler's room is off limits.")

("And what if someone is needed in a particular room while you and your master are elsewhere in the mansion?") Grotle asked.

("Glad you asked,") Machop said, walking over to a table next to the hallway. Kicking at one of the legs, a black box fell over, landing in Machop's hands. ("This is an invention Master Tyler had invented. May I present to you the Alarm Box. How it works is like so. If pokemon in a certain room need us while Master Tyler and I are in different rooms, all the pokemon have to do is press a button and a light will start blinking upon the box, letting us know that we are needed within that room.")

("Now that's a nifty device right there,") Staravia commented.

("Thank you very much,") Machop said. ("So, now that you all know that you're safe with me around, feel free to do as you please around here.")

("Where exactly did you say the playroom was?") Piplup asked.

("Right down that hallway there,") Machop replied, pointing down the hallway, which the table was right next to.

("Come on you guys,") Piplup said to Pachirisu and Happiny. ("We have to check this play area out.")

("Right behind you,") Pachirisu said.

("Me too,") said Happiny as all three ran down the hall, passing by pokemon who were also running up and down the hall.

("I'd like to check this playroom out too,") Chimchar said. ("You want to come, Buizel?")

("I guess,") Buizel said, looking a little uncomfortable as he followed Chimchar, glancing back worriedly at all the pokemon running about.

("Excuse me, Machop,") Swinub said. ("Which way is it to the kitchen?")

("Right down that hallway, through the playroom, and then take a right,") Machop replied.

("Thank you,") Swinub said as he zoomed off in a flash down the hall, knocking several pokemon over.

("You got a place where I could possibly sunbathe for a while?") Sudowoodo asked.

("Right behind the stairs and then out into the backyard,") Machop replied. ("We got a huge swimming pool with a hot tub and an area for rock and fire types to keep warm.")

("Thanks,") Sudowoodo said, walking off.

("I'm coming too,") Ambipom said, following.

("I have to try the hot tub,") Grotle said as he followed also.

("Say Machop,") Staravia said. ("Is there a place for flying types to roost?")

("That'd be right out in the garden,") Machop replied. ("Just go down the other hallway and make a left, then right and you should be there.")

("The garden!") Buneary gasped. ("Oh Pikachu, we just have to check that out. We just have to!")

("Well then let's go,") Pikachu said, grabbing Buneary's paw and walking off with Staravia flying over head. Machop watched as they left and watched for several moments before turning his attention back to the only pokemon there.

("Uh, you do know you can do whatever, right?") he asked Croagunk. Croagunk continued to remain standing where he was, looking right at Machop, or possibly right through him like he wasn't even there. Machop couldn't be sure.

("Hello!") Machop said, waving a paw in front of Croagunk. Still Croagunk remained where he was, staring. ("O.K. then,") Machop said slowly as he tucked the Alarm Box under his arm and walked off in direction Pikachu and Buneary took.

Left all alone, aside from the many pokemon passing him by, Croagunk still remained where he was, staring right where Machop stood moments ago. ("Hmm,") he finally said at last, glancing over at the stairs.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Over in the playroom, Piplup, Pachirisu, and Happiny had ran in and stopped, gazing awingly at the playroom itself. The room itself was a lot bigger than the area they had just been in. There were toy bikes lying about the room, a toy house pokemon walked in and out of, pretending to be families and pretending to make food with plastic toys. There was a huge rug with cities and streets on it that pokeomn used to drive little toy cars around. There was just so much to do in this room.

("This is so cool!") Pachirisu said. ("I don't know what I want to do first.")

("Watch out!") someone yelled. The three turned and jumped out of the way in time as a Bellomsom came driving by in a miniture sized car, losing control and crashing into the wall as the car went to make a U-turn.

("Are you all right?") Piplup asked, runinng over to make sure the Bellosom wasn't hurt. To her surprise though, the Bellosom was laughing.

("That was fun!") she said. ("I want to do it again.") Piplup helped the Bellosom get to her feet and held her steady as she tried to get the senery to stop spinning. Once she did, she turned to Piplup and said, ("Thank you for your help. I'm Bella. And you are?")

("My name's Piplup,") Piplup said. ("And these are my friends.") She turned around to introduce the two, but found them gone. ("Where'd they go?")

("Ah they're probably off having fun,") Bella said. ("But you gotta try this really cool thing out! Come on.")

("Try what out?") Piplup asked.

("Well, we're not really sure what it's called,") Bella said. ("So we just call it the bounce house.")

("The bounce house?") Piplup questioned.

("Yeah,") Bella replied. ("It's this really cool thing you bounce up and down on, not like those round things with the springs. This one is inflatable and looks somewhat like a house. So we call it the bounce house.")

("That sounds cool!") Piplup said. ("Now I want to try it.")

("Then come on you Slowpoke!") Bella laughed as she ran off, Piplup right behind her.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Not long after Piplup ran off, Chimchar and Buizel walked in, Chimchar looking a lot more excited than BUizel, who wasn't looking too comfortable where he was. ("This is so cool!") Chimchar said. ("I've never got to have any kind of fun like this in my entire life! What do you think, Buizel?")

("Huh?") Buizel asked, looking completely lost at Chimchar.

("I asked what you thought about this place,") Chimchar said.

("I guess it's O.K.,") Buizel said after a moment's hesitation.

("Ah you're a party pooper,") Chimchar said. ("Oh look! They have a a maze made out of tunnels. I got to try that out.")

Chimchar then ran off, leaving Buizel behind who grew even more nervous and uncomfortable. Buizel scooched over close to the wall and watched as pokemon ran by him, a few stopping and asking him if he wanted to play with them, which his response was silence. So they all gave up on him and resumed their playing.

Buizel remained up against the wall for a long while, looking down at the ground instead of making eye contact with anyone when a voice next to him said, ("Excuse me.") This he knew was feminine, for she spoke in a soft, gentel tone. Snapping his head up, he stared right into the sapphire eyes of a female Buizel, though making eye contact with anyone made him even more nervous.

("Are you all right?") the female Buizel asked. ("You're not looking too well.")

(Uh, well, um,") Buizel stammered, looking for words to say, so he nervously crossed his arms and turned his head upward towards the left, saying with the most confidene he could muster up, ("I-I'm fine.")

("I don't think I can believe that,") the female Buizel said. ("Not when you try to change your attitude like that.")

("A-And what m-makes you think I'm l-lying?") Biuzel asked.

("Well for starters, your entire body is shaking,") the female Buizel said.

("It's c-cold,") Buizel said.

("And for another, you keep stammering on some words,") the female Buizel said, smiling slightly.

("I still say I'm c-cold,") Buizel said.

("Well then I guess we're just going to have to fix that,") the female Buizel said. ("I'm Dakota by the way.")

("Buizel,") Buizel said.

("Well then Buizel, why don't we get you warmed up?") Dakota asked. ("I know just the perfect place too.")

("Sounds cool,") Buizel said as he quickly followed Dakota out from the room.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Out in the garden, Pikachu and Buneary slowly walked around, greeting pokemon and being simply amazed at what the garden was like. For one thing, it was definitely different from all other gardens. Each row had different types of flowers. On one side, there were daffedils. On the other side were daisies. The next row had tulips on the left and dandelions on the right. And so continued on each row, each side with different kinds of flowers. Up above, plants have grown up and over the structure, making a roof. Cherry blossoms were bloomed all along the roof. Vines dropped down in different locations for pokemon to climb and swing. The air smelled exactly like a rainforest after it had rained. The pavement was damp with very few puddles tha pokemon jumped in and tried splashing others.

("I can't believe it,") Buneary said, gazing all around. ("It's like stepping right into an exotic rainforest.")

("But you can't deny that it looks wonderful,") Pikachu said.

("It does,") Buneary said. ("I wonder though how Machop is able to grow all these flowers in this warm humidity.")

("I can answer that myself if you wish,") someone said from behind the two, startling them as they turned about to see Machop standing there behind them.

("Don't sneak up on us like that,") Pikachu said. ("You could get seriously hurt doing something like that.")

("I'm sorry about that,") Machop said. ("I just wasn't sure what right way to approach you would be. So I just took the opportune moment to have my say.")

("So what is it you want?") Buneary asked. ("Did we forget something?")

("Oh no,") Machop reassured her. ("I just wanted to talk to boyfriend here for a moment, of course, assuming he is your boyfriend.")

("He is,") Buneary said with a blush upon her face.

("So what do you wish to talk to me about?") Pikachu asked.

("Well, seeing as how your trainer left you in charge, I'd have to assume to say that you're the leader of your group,") Machop said. ("I am right, aren't I?")

("Guilty as charged,") Pikachu said, rubbing the back of his head as he smiled. ("Though I can't help but feel that that's not the reason you came to talk to me about.")

("All right you caught me,") Machop said. ("I don't like prying, but I am curious about that scar you have across your chest. How in the world did you ever manage to get a scar like that?") Buneary flinched a bit, drooping her ears slightly, something Machop took notice of right away. ("Or am I prying too much?")

("Hate to admit it, but you kind of are,") Pikachu said.

("Right,") Machop said. ("So sorry to have pried. I shouldn't have done so in the first place. Forgive me.")

("Hey it's cool,") Pikachu said. ("It isn't really the first time I've been asked that and it won't be the last. But seriously, I'd rather not say. It's kind of a personal past.")

("I understand that,") Machop said. ("Some things are just not meant to be told time and again, eh?")

("Something like that,") Pikachu said as a beeping noise was heard.

("What's that?") Buneary asked. Machop grabbed the Alarm Box out from under his arm and looked at one of the lights blinking on it.

("You'll have to excuse me,") he said. ("I'm needed in the kitchen. Wish I could stay and chat some more.")

("It's understandable,") Pikachu said.

("Well, again, you two need anything at all, don't hesitate to call for me,") Machop saiod as he ran off.

("We won't,") Pikachu said. ("And thanks.") Once Machop was gone, Buneary sighed, prompting Pikachu to ask, ("What's wrong, Buneary?")

("Nothing,") Buneary said quickly with a smile.

("Buneary,") Pikahu said sternly. ("I can tell when you're not happy. Has it have anything to do with my scar at all?")

At this, Buneary winced again. ("I can't help but be depressed everytime you're asked about that scar,") Buneary said. ("It makes me think back to what I did to you that gave you that scar.")

("Hey come on now,") Pikachu said with no trace of anger in his voice. ("I told you you had a good reason to do what you've done to me. And I deserved it. But it all turned out good in the end.")

("But-") Buneary said, only to be silenced as Pikachu pressed his lips against hers.

After several seconds, Pikachu broke off saying, ("The past is the past. We can't change what has been done. All we can do is move forward and become stronger from what we've learned.") Hearing this caused Buneary to smile. ("Feel better?")

("Plenty,") Buneary said as she kissed Pikachu this time. All teh happiness within her returned after breaking the kiss again.

("There's that smile I love so much,") Pikachu said, resulting in Buneary cuddling up with Pikachu.

("Well it's about time you two got together,") someone said from behind the two. ("I always thought you both made a cute couple.")

Pikachu and Buneary released their cuddling moment to turn around to see who the speaker was. ("It's you!") Pikachu said excitingly.

("Long time no see, huh, Pikachu?")

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Back in town, Ash, Dawn, and Brock were driven down to a restaurant to eat, curteousy of Tyler. "Are you sure, Tyler?" Brock asked. "It wouldn't feel right to take advantage of you paying for us."

"Nonsense," Tyler said. "You three are my guests. Besides, I'm rich. Money is never a problem for me. So you three eat up as much as you want."

"Well then in that case, thank you very much," Brock said.

"Yes, thank you," Dawn said. "It's not very often we get to have a decent meal like this."

"And you're saying my meals aren't decent?" Brock asked with a smirk.

"That's not it at all," Dawn protested. "Your meals are wonderful. I'm just saying that-"

"Relax Dawn," Tyler said. "Brock's only joking."

"Huh!?" Dawn said confused as Tyler and Brock burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" Ash asked, noodles dangling from his mouth, which of course Brock and Tyler laughed even harder, which caused Dawn to laugh upon seeing Ash like he was. "What?" Ash asked.

From the other end of the restaurant, a girl sat finishing her meal, wiping her mouth with a napkin when she heard the commotion going on. Turning around, she searched for what the commotion was all about. The minute she spotted them, her face was filled with surprise and happiness. Getting up from her table, she walked over and stopped a few feet from where Ash and the others sat.

"Well out of everybody here in Angelinic City, you're the very last person I expected to see here," the girl said. Everyone stopped laughing immediately as Ash slurped down his noodles.

"That voice," he said. "I know it from anywhere."

"Glad to see you still remember me, Ash Ketchum," the girl said as Ash turned around to face her.


	5. Old Friends United

Chapter 4: Old Friends United

("What do you mean long time no see?") Pikachu asked. ("We only ran into each other not too long ago at the Wallace World Cup.")

("I'm only joking,") the pokemon said. ("But it's great to see you and Buneary again.")

("It's great to see you too, Glaceon,") Buneary said, smiling at the four legged, white furred Eon. ("How have the contests been for you?")

("Some of them are tough,") Glaceon said. ("But May's always got Drew, Harley, and Soledad there to support her.")

("How is May anyway?") Pikachu asked.

("She's been doing well,") Glaceon said. ("But May's not the only one here.")

("She's not!?") Buneary asked.

("Who else is here?") asked Pikachu.

("How about taking a look behind you,") someone else said. Turning around, Pikachu and Buneary saw a Roserade standing there behind them.

("Um, hi,") Pikachu said. ("Do I know you?")

("As a Roselia you did,") the Roserade replied.

("Roserade!?") Pikachu said in surprise. ("You mean you evolved?")

("During one of my contests I did,") Roserade replied.

("Wow!") Pikachu said, shocked.

("You two know each other?") Buneary asked, feeling left out.

("Oh, Buneary, this is Roserade,") Pikachu introduced. ("She's a friend of Glaceon's. I knew her as a Roselia back in Hoenn. Roserade, this is my girlfriend Buneary.")

("So you finally found a girl to eventually settle down with, eh?") Roserade asked.

("Definitely,") Pikachu said before turning his attention to Glaceon. ("So where's the rest of the team?")

("Where do you think?") Glaceon said. ("They're all about the mansion. I'm sure we'll run into them when our trainers return.")

("So I take it Drew's here too?") Pikachu asked.

("Not just Drew,") Roserade said. ("Harley's here as well. Cacturne's out in the fields.")

("Maybe we can all go say hi?") Buneary asked. ("I do like meeting pokemon Pikachu's met.")

("Right this way then,") Glaceon said, turning to walk out. Pikachu, Buneary, and Roserade all followed as they left the garden.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

"May!" Ash said, getting up from the table. "What are you doing here?"

"The same reason everyone else is here for," the brown haired trainer answered. "The tournament. Of course, I should have figured you would have been here. Battling is your life."

"You got that right," Ash said. "So have you signed up for the tournament yet?"

"I've been here for a week now," May replied. "When did you get here?"

"We only arrived here a few hours ago," Brock told her. "But aside from that, it's good seeing you again."

"Same here," May said. "Still after those girls, Brock?"

"Oh he always is," Dawn said with a roll of her eyes as Brock blushed embarrassingly. Dawn and May could only laugh.

"So Ash," May said, simmering down. "I don't suppose you've signed up for the tournament yet, have you?"

"Not yet," Ash replied. "Dawn and Brock are signing up too. Tyler's planning on taking us to get signed up before tomorrow."

It was then May glanced over to Tyler and gasped in surprise. "You're Tyler Ronando!?"

"Guilty as charged," Tyler said with a sheepish smile.

"How do you know him?" Dawn asked.

"Everybody in Angelinic City knows Tyler Ronando," May said. "He's the winner of the tournament every year. And those who don't know soon know."

"And speaking of knowing, I don't know you're name," Tyler said.

"I'm May," May said. "I'm a friend of Ash, Brock, and Dawn."

"My that's something interesting," Tyler said. "It's so wonderful meeting the friends of people I meet."

"And I suppose no one's going to introduce us?" someone asked, causing everyone to turn their attention towards the source of where the voice came from.

"Well of course," May said. "Although, there's not much introducing to go around."

"More friends?" Tyler asked as everyone stared right at a boy with neatly combed hair as he ran his fingers through it. His face was quite handsome to the ladies the moment they set eyes on him. Standing right next to him was a tall guy wearing cacus like armor upon his body and a cactus like hat upon his long, lavender haired head.

"Drew!" Ash said. "Harley! You guys are in this tournament as well?"

"We wouldn't be here if we weren't" the tall guy, Harley, said.

"How've you been, Ash?" the other guy, Drew, asked.

"I've been well," Ash said. "Training my pokemon to be tough and all."

"Same as ever, I see," Drew said.

"Hey!" Dawn said. "Who are you guys?"

"Oh Dawn," May said, forgetting that Dawn had no clue who they were. "These are my contest rivals."

"My name's Drew," Drew said, running his fingers through his hair again and shaking his head upward to get it into the style he normally kept it in. "I was Dawn's first rival." He threw a rose to May who caught and sniffed it before blushing.

"And I'm Harley," Harley said. "May's second rival."

"The one who keeps causing trouble for me," May said through half closed eyes.

"Don't believe a word she says," Harley said, pretending to ignore her. "She just thinks I cause trouble." Drew only chuckled.

"Well I'm Dawn," Dawn said. "I'm a contest battler like you guys too. I'm trying to become a top coordinator."

"And just how many ribbons do you have so far?" Harley asked.

"I already have three," Dawn replied.

"Well I have to say you're doing an all right job then," Drew said. "I'd like to get the chance to battle you, but I'll save it for the tournament."

"Speaking of which, shouldn't we be getting over to signing up?" Brock asked. "I mean the day won't last forever and I would like to get the chance to sign up before it's too late."

"Well then maybe we should let you finish before we resume our conversation then," Harley said.

"Oh no," Brock said. "It's fine."

"Say," Ash said. "Is Soledad around?"

"She's not going to be here until the day of the tournament starts," Drew replied. "So we signed her name up for her."

"Well that's good to know," Ash said.

"Is Soledad a contest battler too?" Dawn asked.

"Sure is," May replied. "But anyway, we better let you three finish y=up your meal so you can sign in. There's not that many slots left open."

"Indeed there's not," Tyler said. "So I'll tell you all what. I'll go down and sign you all up for the tournament while you sit here and catch up with each other."

"Are you sure?" Brock asked. "You're doing an awful lot for us."

"It's on me," Tyler said with a smile. "Just let the waitress know to put your bill on my tab and I'll take care of everything. I'll even pay for your friends."

"Well isn't that nice?" Harley asked. "You have my thanks."

"I'll be back in a little bit then," Tyler said as he walked out of the restaurant, leaving the trainers to catch up with one another.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

All was peace and quiet, not a single sound could be heard. The breeze felt nice. It had a cool, gentle touch as it blew. Through closed eyes, Buizel smiled. He felt relaxed, at ease. This was the type of style he liked. All the uncomfortable feeling he was feeling earlier had long vanished. This felt right to him. He opened up his eyes as he was asked, ("Feeling any better now?")

("Plenty,") he replied, turning to Dakota, the female Buizel he had met that led him here. ("Sorry about before. I just felt really uncomfortable in there.")

("I know the feeling,") Dakota said. ("There are just some areas people and pokemon end up at where they don't feel comfortable at being. Normally when that happens with me, I go off to somewhere quiet where I can think. Then I get back into the swing of things.")

("It is pretty neat out here," Buizel said. "How did you discover his place?")

("Just wandered over here, I suppose,") Dakota replied, taking a look at thier surroundings. They stood by the edge of a forest, a small pond a few feet away. Beyond that was nothing but open fields and hills to be seen for miles. ("But peace and quiet is something I enjoy most.")

("Not me,") Buizel said. ("I enjoy battling. I always practice to keep my strength up.")

("How come?") Dakota asked.

("So I can be better than any other pokemon who declare themselves strong,") Buizel replied.

("Hmph!") Dakota said, turning her head into a downward left position, crossing her arms. ("I don't see what the big deal is why some pokemon just train to be better than others.")

("You wouldn't understand,") Buizel said. ("It's just a guy thing.")

("Well you can't be strong against others forever," Dakota said. ("Losing's not that bad either. You can't be a winner all of the time.")

("Some guys are just prideful,") Buizel said. ("And I'm one of those guys.")

("Whatever,") Dakota said.

("Well you sure did change your attitude quickly,") Buizel said, frowning.

Dakota turned around and walked over to a tree where she sat down and leaned against it, placing bothe her paws behind her head. ("Go ahead and do whatever you want with your life then,") she said. ("If you want to be better than everybody else, then that's not my problem to worry about.")

("Fine then,") Buizel said annoyed. He turned around and began walking up towards the mansion, grumbling about Dakota on his way up as Dakota remained where she was, looking up into the sky.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Back up at the mansion, pokemon were swimming all over in the biggest pool the world has ever seen. The pool itself started as a rectangle, but midway it curved in two directions. In one direction, it curved off and went stright towards a waterfall before curving around in a circle and reconnecting with the waterway. Pokemon either swam or rode tubes to the waterfall. There, they played around, the water crashing down on top of them. And behind the waterfall was a little area pokemon could sit in and watch evrything from within going on outside.

The otehr curved direction went downhill, and by downhill, I mean a long ways down, sort of like a slide. Pokemon rode tubes, rafts, and such down the hillside. Upon reaching the bottom, they would drift out in the open fields before entering a tunnel, which forked in two different directions.

The right fork would lead pokemon back out into the open fields where they would round about and ride a waterway up the hill, returning to the pool. The left fork led straight to an area for couples to swim around with each other while soft, romantic music played for them.

Returning to the pool, there were also giant size slides for pokemon to slide down to get to the pool, a net stretched across for pokemon to play volleyball and so much more. The hot tub, however, though not as cool as the pool, was still big at least for pokemon to sit and relax in. And the best part about the hot tub was that there were waterproof timers for bubbles.

Grotle laughed as the bubbles tickled his back. The warm water relaxed all his muscles as he laid his head back and let the bubbles act as a pillow for him. ("This is so refreshing,") he said.

("You said it,") a Flaffy said from nearby. ("This your first time?")

("Sure is,") Grotle replied. ("I'm Grotle.")

("You can just call me Alf,") the Flaffy said.

("That's a strange name,") Grotle said.

("I know,") Alf said. ("Trainers. Always thinking up of weird names for us pokemon.")

("Well not all nicknames are weird,") someone else said. Alf and Grotle turned their attention to the pokemon who had said this to see a Dragonite sitting nearby, though the strange thing about this Dragonite, however, was that unlike all other Dragonite who were giant sized, this Dragonite was about the size of a Raichu or somewhere close to it. ("Some nicknames are cool, even though they may be weird. I'm happy with mine though.")

("But seriously, who name's a Flaffy Alf?") Alf asked.

("Like the Dragonite said, some weird nicknames can be cool, if you really think about it, that is,") Grotle said. ("Though I am curious to know something.")

("What's that?") the Dragonite said.

("What's up with your size?") Grotle asked. ("Dragonite are normally bigger than what you are looking to be.")

("Oh!") the Dragonite exclaimed. ("In all honesty, I'm not really a Dragonite at all.") The Dragonite then glowed white as his entire form changed, shrinking down until the white glow faded, revealing a pink blob with black eyes. ("I'm just a Ditto. You can call me Mini-Dit. Nice to meet you!")


	6. Mansion Aftermath

Chapter 5: Mansion Aftermath

"Man oh man!" Ash said, leaning back in his chair, patting his filled up stomach. "Am I ever stuffed?"

"I know," Dawn said. "We haven't ate that well of a meal in a long time."

"Not too often you get to eat in such a fancy restaurant like this, huh Dawn?" Harley asked.

"Not that often," Dawn said with a smile. "So how did you two meet May?"

"Well I'm not entirely sure how Drew met her, but I recall the day I met her," Harley said. "I was on a cruise that May and her two friends were on and I just so happened to have met her. And since then, we've been nothing but rivals."

"Yeah, but you were more out to humiliate her than you were worrying about winning," Drew said.

"That was the old me," Harley said. "I've changed since then."

"Let's not forget the time you teamed up with Team Rocket," May said smugly.

"LIke I said, the past is the past," Harley said. "I'm a much different Harley than I was back then."

"We all know," May said. "At least a few of us do. Others need a little convincing."

"Well then I'll prove it during the tournament," Harley said.

"Anyway," Drew said. "How I met May was right before a contest. I was surrounded by girls as always and there she was. I'm known for being one of the best just because of how I look."

"Yeah but I was the reason you tried so hard," May said.

"Just keep telling yourself that," Drew said, eyes closed and smiling.

"Say I have a question," Brock said. "How long have we been here? It seems like an awful long time to me."

"You know, now that you mention it, it does seem that way," Harley said.

"And we really ought to pick up our pokemon," Ash said. "Besides, the tournament is in less than three days now and I need to do some training tomorrow."

"I hear you," Dawn said.

"That gives me an excellent idea," Drew said.

"What?" Brock asked as everyone looked at him.

"How about we train against each other in preparation for the tournament?" Drew suggested. "May against Dawn, Harley against Brock, and Ash against me?"

"That does sound like a great idea," Ash said. "But I think I'd rather practice off alone and save the battling for the tournament. What do you guys say?"

"You have something cooked up in that head of yours, don't you Ash?" May asked.

"How did you know?" Ash asked.

"Well normally when you want to train without battling someone, you have something cooked up," May answered him. "So what do you have going on in that head of yours?"

"It's a surprise," Ash said. "Well, I'm ready to get my training done tomorrow."

"So am I," Dawn said. "I have to train my pokemon for the tournament. This is going to be so cool!"

"Say," Drew said. "Shouldn't Tyler have been back by now?"

"You're right," Brock said. "He probably got caught up. Or maybe the line was long."

"He's winner of last year's tournament," Harley said. "And as winner, the entire city is under his command. So that means that whatever Tyler wants or needs, Tyler will get just that."

"I didn't know that," Ash said. "So he's like a mayor or something?"

"Something like that," Harley said. "And he gets to rule the city for an entire year before next year's tournament. And then whoever wins that year's tournament gets to rule the town the way they want it. And so on."

"That's pretty cool!" Dawn said. "Now I'm eager to train my pokemon."

"But Dawn," Brock said. "What about your goal to become top coordinator?"

"Oh yeah," Dawn said forgetfully. "Forgot about that."

"You all ready to pay your bill?" the waitrss asked as she came walking over.

"Tyler Ronando said to put it in his tab," Dawn said.

"Well then I'll do just that," the waitress said as she turned to leave, but was stopped suddenly for Brock blocked her path.

"And while we're on the subject, perhaps you can pay me a visit for a date tonight," he said, all dreamy eye. The other all looked at him, Ash and Dawn embarrassed, Drew and Harley looking on in confusion, and May just sighing. "Your rare beauty has inspired me to pay for all the luxuries you want, to go beyond the unknown together, to be the only two people left on Earth as we live eternally blissfully together forever."

At this time, everyone, including the waitress, were looking quite disturbed. However, the awkwardness broke as someone suddenly grabbed Brock by the back of his shirt and yanked him aside. "So sorry about him," Tyler said. "He can get out of hand at times."

"Hey Tyler!" Dawn said. "You've been gone for an awfully long time."

"Quite sorry about that, my dear," Tyler said. "It's tough to get anywhere when there are a bunch of fangirls surrounding you."

"I know the feeling," Drew said.

"I know you," Tyler said. "You're that Drew person from Hoenn. I must say, it's an honor to meet you."

"Ditto," Drew said.

"Where?" Ash asked, looking around confused.

"Not the pokemon Ditto you dummy," May said. "He meant the kind of ditto as in the same thing."

"Oh," Ash said, rubbing the back of his head embarrassingly. "My bad."

"So, you all have finished your meals, have you?" Tyler asked.

"Yup," Ash said. "We're stuffed. So did you manage to get our names written down for the tournament?"

"Just in time too," Tyler said. "You three were the last three to fill the last of the slots. Talk about perfect timing."

"I'll say," Brock said. "Anyway, we're all ready to pick up our pokemon. Gotta train in preparation for the tournament and all."

"Quite right," Tyler said. "Although, if your other friends wish to come, it's going to be kindof a tight squeeze."

"I think we can mange it," Harley said as everyone walked out to Tyler's car.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Minutes later, Tyler was pulling back up to his mansion. In the front sat Dawn next to him and May by the door. Luckily for Tyler, his car had a foldable seat for Dawn to sit in. In the back sat Brock, Ash, Drew, and Harley, all cramped up with Ash and Drew in the middle. "So is it true?" Dawn asked as Tyler pulled into his garage. "Do you really get to rule the village as a mayor after winning the tournament?"

"It's true," Tyler said.

"I bet it's awesome having to command the city to do whatever you want to do," Dawn said.

"It's wonderful," Tyler said. "You can have buildings torn down, built, and anything else your heart desires."

"I could have all the girls treat me as king if I ruled this village!" Brock said, daydreaming about himself being surrounded by millions of girls at his disposal.

"Let's just be thankful your goal is to become a breeder and not that," May said, snickering, which got everybody but Ash to laugh as Brock's daydream was shattered. Everyone then piled out of the car and made their way to the front of the mansion.

Opening up the doors, everyone stopped, stood, and stared as mass chaos was loose. Pokemon everywhere were fighting against each other, whether they were trying to hit one another, electrify, freeze, drain energy, or even poison each other.

"What in the world happened here?" Tyler asked, gaping in shock in surprise. "When I left here, all the pokemon were playing with each other. How did all this happen?" Everyone had to duck as a Pidgeotto flew overhead outside, being chased by a Dustox.

("Save me!") someone yelled. Looking up, everyone saw a scared looking Gliscor flying down right at Ash who could only stand there looking even more surprised as the Gliscor landed right on top of him. Everyone else just looked down at Ash being curshed by the Gliscor.

"You think we should help him up?" Tyler asked.

"I'm sure he'll be all right," Dawn said. "This sort of thing happens all the time. Hmm?" Glancing over to the entrance to the hallway, she saw Buizel leaned up against the wall, arms crossed and an angry glare staring directly across the room. "Hey Buizel, are you all right?"

Buizel remained silent as a Skitty suddenlyshout out from the hallway Buizel was right next to, skidding to a halt before running over to May who knelt down on her knees and embraced her pokemon. "What happened Skitty?" she asked. "Are you hurt?"

("He's after me!") Skitty cried as everyone's attention was returned to the hallway as a flamethrower shot out from it, followed by a Flame Wheel as Chimchar shot out.

("Where is she?") Chimchar screamed. ("Where's that wretch of a Skitty?")

"Chimchar!" Ash yelled, finally getting Gliscor off of him. "What's gotten into you?" Chimchar only glared at him before he saw Skitty in May's arms.

("Eep!") Skitty cried as Chimchar advanced upon her and May, who gasped in fright and backed up. Suddenly, Chimchar was knocked aside by an incoming Whirlpool, Piplup showing up a second later with a Bellossom.

("Leave Skitty alone!") Piplup said. ("It was an accident.") Chimchar only growled as he shot anotehr flamethrower at the two, only to be countered by another Whirlpool and a Magical Leaf from the Bellossom.

"Enough of this, Chimchar!" Ash yelled, diving toward his pokemon to try and stop him, but to no avail did it work, for Chimchar leapt over him and began running straight for Skitty and May again.

However, in that moment, someone had suddenly said, "Okay Bella. Use Grass Whistle." A second later, a sweet, soothing melody began playing. Everyone turned to see the Bellossom with a piece of grass in her hand playing a tune that was all too familiar to Ash, Dawn, and Brock as every single pokemon immediately calmed down.

"Hey!" Dawn said. "I know that song."

"So do I," Brock said. "There's only one person in the world who can play that song. And she's from Alamos Town." Soon, the music ceased and all the pokemon began apologizing to each other, checking to make sure none of the wounds inflicted were too serious.

"So you've been to Alamos Town too, eh?" the mysterious new person asked as he stepped in through the doorway, grabbing everyone's attention. The person, now revealed a boy, was about as tall as Brock, had shaggy, black hair, wore a buttoned up Hawaiian shirt with grass type pokemon covering it, had blue jeans on, and looked like he could compete in any athletic competition.

"Some time back," Dawn said. "Who are you?"

"My name is Ben," the boy said. "Ben Byers. I didn't like the scene that was going on, so I had Bella play that tune."

"Speaking of tunes, how did you learn that melody?" Brock asked.

"I just told you," Ben said. "I've visited Alamos Town. And while I was there, I met a very nice girl who taught me that song to my Bellossom, Bella. Ever since then, she's been practicing around areas that had pokemon filled with rage. She's gotten really good at it too."

"We can tell," Ash said. "I'm Ash by the way. Nice to meet you."

"Hi I'm Dawn."

"I'm Brock."

"I'm May."

"Drew's my name," Drew said, running his fingers though his hair and nodding his head in an upward left position.

"Hi. My name's Harley."

"And I'm sure you know me," Tyler said.

"Sure do," Ben said. "Anyway, Bella, mind calling the rest of the team in?"

("O.K.,") the Bellossom, Bella said as she began playing a different melody. Chimchar aplogized to both Skitty and Piplup for the misunderstanding before Ash recalled him, Buizel, and Gliscor. Soon, other pokemon came walking into the room, along with the rest of the gang's team.

"Oh wow!" Dawn said to May. "You're Glaceon looks as beautiful as ever."

"You think?" May asked as Glaceon could only blush.

"Hey check it out!" Ash said, pointing, directing everyone's attention to what he was pointing at. "It's a Beldum."

True to what Ash said, a Beldum was levitating right there along with another Buizel who was also male, a Butterfree, a Bagon, and a male Buneary.

"That's my crew," Ben said.

"Your crew?" Brock asked.

"Uh huh," Ben said, pointing to each of his pokemon. "My Beldum Blumble, Bagon Blake, my Butterfree Bree, my Buizel Bruzol, my Bellossom Bella, of course, and my favortie pokemon of all, my Buneary Brian."

("How do you do?") Brian asked.

"You nicknamed them all?" Ash asked.

"I come from a family filled with Bs," Ben said. "So I like holding up the tradition of catching pokemon starting with the letter B only and giving them nicknames that might suit them."

"That's pretty awesome!" Dawn said. "You know I have a Buneary too. Say hi to Brian, Buneary."

("Hello,") Buneary said, hopping over to Brian and shaking him warmly by the paw.

("Very nice to meet you,") Brian said.

"Well," Harley said. "Hate to break this friendly conversation up, but I'm going to return to the hotel early to get some sleep. Got training to do tomorrow and all."

"Harley's right," May said. "We could all use some rest and besides, it's our pokemon who are more important since they are the ones battling."

"True to that," Drew said. "All right gang. Time to return."

"You too," Harley said. Soon, all pokemon were returned, including Ben's. PIkachu was picked up and placed back on Ash's shoulder.

"Hey wait a minute," Brock said. "I'm still missing Croagunk."

"Yeah and my Swinub," Dawn said.

"And where is Machop?" Tyler wondered as some grunting was finally heard. Everyone turned around to see Machop dragging a very fat Swinub. "Goodness gracious me! What happened?"

("You'll never believe me if I told you,") Machop said as he let go of Swinub and sat down, wiping his head in exhaustion.

"I'm so sorry about Swinub!" Dawn said, running over to him. "He must have gotten into your kitchen and ate all your food."

("And there you have it,") Machop said.

"Not to worry, Dawn," Tyler said. "I'll just go out and restock on everything. Nothing to be sorry about." At that moment, Croagunk showed up out of nowhere, scaring everyone.

"Ack!" Brock said. "Croagunk, don't do that. Where've you been anyway?" Croagunk remained silent as Brock returned him to his pokeball.

"Well," Ash said as he and everyone turned towards the door. "It was very nice of you to allow our pokemon to play here."

"Yes, thank you very much," May and Dawn said, bowing.

"You're always welcome to let them back here again anytime during the tournament," Tyler said. "My mansion is open to all the pokemon, tame and wild."

"Well, thanks again," Ash said as everyone walked out.

"You're welcome!" Tyler said back to them. "And I can't wait to see how you fare in the tournament. Good luck with tomorrow. All of you!" Tyler remained standing on the porch as he watched everyone walk away from the mansion. Once they were gone, Tyler turned around and went back inside, shutting the door behind him. "Well now, let's see what damage has been done."

("I can tell myself one thing,") Machop said to himself as he turned and followed his master down the hallway to the kitchen. ("He's not going to be happy when he sees what's happened to the playroom.")


	7. Preparation

Chapter 6: Preparation

After a well rested night, the following morning had come, the day before the tournament, the day of training. Following May, Drew, and Harley back to the hotel they were staying at, Ash, Dawn, and Brock had rented the ajoining room next to theirs. All the guys had one room while May and Dawn had the other to themselves. Come the morning, everyone woke up to find Ash already gone.

"Where'd he go?" Dawn asked.

"He always does this," Brock told her. "Whenever he's about to go up against a really tough opponent or comepte in a tournament, he always gets up early to train his pokemon to strengthen them."

"Now that's what I call determination," Harley said.

"I second that," Drew said.

"Well we're not going to last very long in the tournament if we don't get to training," May said. "Let's go!"

"Perhaps we should eat first before training," Dawn said as the sounds of empty stomachs growled.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Outside of the hotel, trainers everywhere were in different locations training their pokemon or just having another day goofing off and continuing what they were doing the previous day. Pokemon trained in the park, on the beach, and even in the Pokemon Gym and the Contest Hall. And right inside the Contest Hall were two individuals with a catlike pokemon walking on two legs. The first was a tall girl wearing glasses with bright, red hair in pigtails while the second was a guy with short, lavender hair dressed in a well mannered fashion.

"I still can't believe how lucky we were to actually get a position in the tournament," the guy said. "And we never get the chance to do something like this."

"Hey!" the girl said. "I won't be having you have that kind of attitude. This is going to be our turning point to our victory."

"Among all the other times we've been beaten?" asked the Meowth.

"Enough!" the girl yelled. "I will not tolerate this kind of behavior. From the day this tournament begins until it ends, we will strive to win and not lose."

"At least until there's only one winner," the guy said. "Right Jessie?"

"I suppose so, James," the girl, Jessie, said. "And it's Jesselinda to you, Jamison."

"Remind me again why we're using fake names," James said.

"Do you want people to know who we really are?" Jessie asked. "We'd be out of the tournament in a minute and thrown into jail."

"Yeah but we would only wind up escaping again," Meowth said.

"And you," Jessie said. "People would get suspicious what with us having a talking Meowth and all."

"Jesselinda's right," James said. "Imagine if the twerps are here in the tournament. And gut feeling says they are. They'd know who we are and we'd end up in jail like Jesselinda said."

"So then what am I supposed to do for the time being?" Meowth asked.

"You're a pokemon," Jessie said. "Start acting like one."

"Oh yeah," Meowth said. "I completely forgot I was one. So what am I supposed to do?"

"I just told you," Jessie said. "Start acting like one. You can be on Jamison's team."

"You sure?" James asked. "What about you?"

"I already have Wobbufet, Seviper, and Yanmega," Jessie told him. "You only have Carnivine and Mime Jr. With Meowth on your team, we'll be even with three."

"Thanks, Jess," James said, turning to Meowth. "All right Meowth. You heard her. From now on, you will be under my command for battle, meaning you will have to act just like a normal Meowth."

"You're joking," Meowth said, a little shocked.

"I do not joke," James said. "Now down on all fours before you raise any suspicion. And no more talking."

"I can't believe I'm resorting back to being a normal pokemon," Meowth said as he dropped down onto all fours again. "Meowth."

"All right then," Jessie said. "Let's get to training and try to at least survive in this tournaemt as long as possible."

"Right," James said.

"Meowth," Meowth agreed, nodding his head.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Trainers continued training their pokemon as the day passed by until the sun began setting. Around this time, trainers began making their way over to the Pokemon Center to heal up their pokemon for the tournament the following day. By the time Ash and everyone made their way to the Center, there was an awfully long line outside of the Center.

"Aw man!" Dawn said. "Look how long the line is. By the time we get inside, the place will be closed."

"Not to worry, Dawn," Harley said. "It's the day before the tournament. They'll stay up all night if they have to."

"You sure?" Dawn asked.

"Positive," Harley said.

"Well look at who's exhausted," Drew suddenly said, his attention turned to an approaching Ash who slowly dragged his feet towards his friends. "I take it your training went well from the look of sheer exhaustion your body seems to be in?"

"Yeah," Ash said as he fell forward, being caught by Brock and Harley.

"You always manage to overdo it, don't you Ash?" May asked rhetorically. Ash could only chuckle as Pikachu came walking up.

"Hey Pikachu," May said. "Doing all right?"

("Could be better,") Pikachu said.

"Oh yeah," May said. "Ash told me about your scar. I'm so sorry you can't do anymore training."

("It's fine,") Pikachu said with a slight smile.

"So what's with the long line?" asked Ash.

"Obviously these are all the trainers participating in the tournament," Ben said, walking up from behind.

"Hey Ben," Ash said. "I take it you're in the tournament as well."

"Indeed I am," Ben replied. "What a day we had, eh? Training and all. How did all of you fair out?"

"I think I faired pretty well," Dawn said.

"Me too," Brock said.

"That's all great news to hear," someone suddenly said, causing everyone to turn around. "It just makes me look forward to tomorrow's battle."

"Hey!" Dawn said. "It's the poetry professor!"

"You mean Professor Oak," May said.

"Right," Dawn said. "Him."

"And don't forget me," said a woman with brown hair tied up in a ponytail.

"Hey mom," Ash said, walking over and giving her a hug.

"How's my pokemon master doing?" Ash's mom said.

"Well to tell the truth, I am a little exhausted at the moment."

"Training hard as always, aren't you Ash?" asked a short, shaggy black hair kid wearing a green shirt and khaki pants.

"Tracy!?" Ash said surprised. "Long time no see. What are you doing here?"

"I have to admit, Ash," Tracy said. "I signed up for this tournament weeks ago. I called in to have my name written down and all. And here I am."

"Hold on a moment!" Dawn said. "Who exactly is this guy?"

"Dawn, this is Tracy," Brock told her. "He traveled with Ash back on the Orange Islands. Tracy, allow me to introduce Dawn, May, Drew, Harley, and Ben."

"How do you do?" Drew asked.

"Wow!" Tracy said. "You sure have been making quite the friends, huh Ash?"

"You could say something like that," Ash replied, rubbing the back of his head.

"Been quite a while, hasn't it May?" Professor Oak asked. "How has your contest battles been?"

"Oh they've been all right," May told him. "I've had my friends to help me out when I most needed it."

"Say I have a question. What exactly are you carrying in that bag, Professor?" Harley asked, referring to the bag at Oak's side.

"This contains all of Ash's pokemon," Oak said. "You see, just this morning Ash called me up and asked me to bring him all his pokemon right before he began his training."

"Although, I was hoping you would have been here a little sooner so I could see them all," Ash said.

"Well, I did have a bunch of stops to make on my way over," Oak said.

"What kind of stops?" Brock asked.

"Oh I'm sure you'll all see later," Oak said. "But for now, it looks like the lot of you are busy trying to get in."

"It's kind of hard to with a long line of pokemon trainers," Ben stated.

"Well perhaps I could be of some assitance," someone said, causing everyone once again to turn their attention to the source of whom was speaking. The speaker was a male doctor wearing a trench coat with neatly combed hair.

"Hey!" Ash said. "I know you."

"So do I," Brock said. "You're that doctor from the Kanto Region who didn't check up on pokemon."

"Dr. Proctor," the doctor said.

"Right," Ash said. "Now I remember."

"And who's he?" Dawn asked.

"This is Dr. Proctor," Brock told her. "Ash and I, along with another friend of ours, helped him treat pokemon once after an accident occurred and there was no room at the Pokemon Center."

"So what are you doing here?" Ash asked.

"I was called in all the way from Kanto to help heal pokemon for the tournament," Proctor answered. "In fact, I should be up there right now helping out. But I remember seeing you, Ash and Brock. So I came over to say hi and thought I could get you all up front as thanks for all the help. Your friends are more than welcome to come along."

"Thanks a lot," Ash said.

"We'll be right here waiting for you," Delia said as the group all followed Proctor up front. After having all their pokemon healed, the group, plus Ben, all went out to the restaurant to eat and talk amongst one another, sharing stories of their adventures, their tactics they use for battling, and so on. By the time night came around, everyone was back at the hotel, Professor Oak getting a room for free for who he was. Soon, everyone was fast asleep in their beds, anxious for the tournament to come.


	8. The Tournament Begins

Chapter 7: The Tournament Begins

"Wow!" Ash said as he gazed around the mansion's courtyard. There were a lot of trainers filling up the area talking to one another, trying to relieve the tension they felt. "Look at all the trainers here. They all seem a little tense."

"Well of course," Ben said. "Out of all these trainers here, there's only going to be one winner. Their main concern, however, is trying to survive to the semi-finals."

"And just how many trainers do you think there are?" Dawn asked.

"I could answer that question for you, my dear," someone said from behind her, surprising Dawn. "There are two hundred and fifty-six trainers in all participating in this tournament."

"Someone please tell me that voice does not belong to some black haired, nerdy looking freak," Dawn said flatly.

"Now, now," the guy said. "Is that anyway to treat an old friend?"

"An old friend, no," Dawn said. "You, yes."

"So he's not a friend?" Ben asked.

"Unfortunately," Dawn said with a sigh. "Guys, this is Conway."

"A pleasure," Conway said.

"So how many trainers did you say there were?" Tracy asked.

"Two hundred and fifty-six," Conway repeated.

"That's quite a lot," Harley said.

"Indeed," Conway said.

"Well anyway," May said. "How long do you think it will be before the tournament begins?"

"I hope it's soon," Ash said. "I'm so eager to battle!"

"I want to know what's up with these orbs we were handed," Tracy said, looking at an orb he held. "Perhaps there's something inside them."

"Possibly," Drew said. "But I'm sure Tyler will explain everything."

"I sure hope so," Dawn said.

"Well we're about to find out," Drew said, looking up toward the balcony upon which Tyler stood. Next to him was Machop. Together they scanned out among the many trainers there in the courtyard before Tyler began speaking.

"Welcome trainers one and all to a new year of the tournament," Tyler announced. "This year, like every year, looks promising to be exciting, especially with some very new trainers from far away lands. And for all those who are new, I shall explain how this tournament is going to play out. As you all know, you have been given orbs on your way in. Inside each orb is a piece of paper with the days of the week on it, indicating who will be battling on which day. S, U stands for Sunday, M for Monday, T,U for Tuesday, and so on. Below those letters will be a single letter. Say for example I opened up my orb and had to battle today. Right below the day would be the letter A. I would then have to go around searching for the trainer who also is battling today and has the letter A."

"So basically we're just looking for those who have the same piece of paper each of us would have," Dawn concluded.

"Seems that way," Harley said.

"This will go on for three weeks exactly before we move into the semi-finals," Tyler continued. "Then it will be another three weeks before we finally arrive at the finals. And after the finals will we know who will be the new ruler of city. I myself will be participating in this tournament as well, but not until the third week possibly. So whoever ends up with a blank sheet of paper will receive the entire week off from the tournament until the following week. Another thing you will find inside your orb is a card marked where you will be battling your opponents. Whoever the winner is in the end will receive the opponent's card which will show where next week's battle will be taking place. A three on three battle is ruled for the three weeks of the tournament. For those whose battles take place later on in the week, feel free to leave your pokemon at my mansion until your battle comes. My Machop and I will take very good care of them while you all battle amongst each other. So without further to do, you may open up your orbs and commence the tournament. I'll see you all back here next week. Good luck to you all!"

_________________________________________________________________________________________

"Hmm," Ash said, staring at the dot upon his card he held, trying to make out where exactly his battle was to take place. For over an hour now he had been doing nothing but staring at it, trying to discover the location of his battle.

"He's been staring at that card for over an hour now," Dawn groaned. "When's he going to figure out his battle's over by the fire station?"

"Sometimes he can seem pretty dumb," Drew said. "And I mean that in a good way."

"O.K." Ash said at last. "I think I figured it out. I have to battle at the fire station."

"And it took him this long?" Ben asked, a sweat drop on the back of his head.

"That's Ash for you," Brock said. "He may not always seem the brightest at times, but when he really concentrates, he'll get things right away."

"So Ash," May said as Ash walked over to them. "Have you found out where you're battling yet?"

"Yup," Ash replied. "And I've already chosen what pokemon I'm going to use in today's battle."

"Well then this promises to be an interesting battle," Harley said. "I've got to see how well your training has become."

"I'll be there supporting you too, Ash," Brock said.

"And I can't wait to see my young pokemon master in action," Delia said.

"And is there anyone going to watch me battle?" someone asked.

"You know I will," May said, turning to a tall, long red haired woman. "And I have someone else who will be watching you battle as well."

"Dawn, I presume," the woman said.

"I am," Dawn said. "And you must be Soledad everybody keeps talking about."

"Guilty as charged," Soledad said with a smile.

"Hey Soledad," Ash said. "Long time no see."

"It's been too long, Ash," Soledad said. "So I take it that you're up battling today."

"Yup," Ash said. "I'm A. What letter are you?"

"B, fortunately," Soledad said. "I wouldn't want to compete against my friends too early."

"I agree on that," Tracy said as Drew began walking away.

"Hey Drew," May said. "Where're you going?"

"I'm going off to watch other trainers battle," Drew replied. "I know all of Soledad's moves and I'd rather wait to see Ash battle later on in the semi-finals."

"Great I'll join you," Tracy said, catching up with Drew as they walked away.

"Well," Ash said. "It's about time I get to the fire station for my challenge."

"Mine too," Soledad said. "Ash, I wish you luck."

"Thanks," Ash said. "You too."

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Minutes later, Ash, Brock, and Harley were all in front of the fire station, looking around for Ash's opponent. Pikachu was also helping in the search, pricking his ears up as he heard someone coming up from behind. ("Guys,") he said, alerting the trio. All three turned around to see a tall, black haired man walking up toward them in a fire fighter outfit.

"Excuse me," he said. "Are any of you by any chance battling today?"

"I am," Ash spoke up. "I'm Ash Ketchum. I'm looking for someone with the letter A on thier paper."

"So you have the letter A, eh?" the guy asked. "My name is Trent and you are my opponent for this week."

"All right!" Ash said excitedly. "I've been waiting all day for this battle to begin. And I'm going ot givce it my all."

"Mine too," Trent said as he grabbed out a pokeball. "Come on out, Growlithe!" A burst of light shot forth from the ball and formed into an orange pup with black stripes.

"A Growlithe huh?" Ash said, pulling out a pokeball of his own. "All right then. Let's see how you manage against my pokemon. Go!"

_________________________________________________________________________________________

In another location of Angelinic City, May, Dawn, and Soledad were heading for the location Soledad was to battle, talking along the way. "Really?" Dawn asked surprised. "You actually beat Drew?"

"Told you she was one of the best," May said.

"Bet she even beat you a few times too, huh?" Dawn asked without thinking.

"You didn't have to put it like that," May said. Soledad only chuckled as the trio finally arrived at the destination where Soleada was to battle.

"We're here," she said, staring at the museum.

"And I suppose your opponent is inside," Dawn said.

"Close enough," someone said, prompting the three girls to turn to the speaker. Whom they were looking at was a gothic looking girl dressed all in black. She had eye liners beneath her eyes, had a bunch of necklaces around her neck, and had long, dark black hair coming down to her waist line while she had short hair in the front. "But it would be interesting battling inside a museum. I'm Tara by the way. You Sunday B?"

"I sure am," Soledad said. "I'm Soledad."

"Whatever," Tara said. "Let's just get this battle over with. Smoochum, you're up." Coming out in a burst of light from the pokeball came a minature sized human like pokemon with short, blond hair and really big eyes.

"What is that?" Dawn asked out loud, getting out her Pokedex and aiming right at the Smoochum.

_"Smoochum, the ice type pokemon,"_ Dawn's pokedex said. _"Smoochum is the pre-evolved form of Jynx and has attacks known to confuse its enemies."_

"All right then," Soledad said. "Butterfree, you're up first."

_________________________________________________________________________________________

"Is there any reason why you're following us?" Drew asked as Conway followed behind him and Tracy.

"The answer is quite simple," Conway said. "By following you, I can study the attacks of every opponent and make it to the semi-finals."

"Here's a question for you," Tracy said. "How can you study your opponent when he or she will be battling you later on in the week?"

"Hmm," Conway said. "I haven't thought about that. Oh well I'm sure I'll be able to get through with no problem hopefully."

"Yeah, let's hope," Tracy said as Drew's attention was diverted.

"Hey," he said. "Wonder what's going on over at the library."

"Let's check it out," Conway said, rushing by the two to get over to the crowd entering the building.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

("Hey Buneary,") came Machop's voice, causing her to turn around. ("I was hoping you would be back.")

("Oh hello Machop,") Buneary said, turning to the body building pokemon as he came walking up to her. ("How are you?")

("I'm feeling wonderful now that you're back here,") Machop said with a smile.

("Aww I'm glad I could make your day,") Buneary said sweetly.

("So, you enjoying the garden?") Machop asked.

("I know I am,") said a Bulbasaur with a heart shape spot upon his head. ("It smells heavenly!")

("Wonderful,") Machop said. ("Truly wonderful. By the way Buneary, I believe that pokemon such as yourself enjoy the open fields of flowers if I'm not mistaken.")

A look of pure, dreamy, happy look came over Buneary as he said this. She sighed. ("What I wouldn't give to be out in an open field of flowers,") she said.

("Well you're in luck,") Machop said. ("There just happens to be a field of flowers just over a few hills. If you want, I'll take you to it.")

("I would love to,") Buneary said. ("You want to come, Bulbasaur?")

("Thanks but no thanks,") the Bulbasaur said. ("I like it here. It's peaceful.")

("O.K. then,") Buneary said, turning back to Machop.

("Follow me then,") Machop said as he led Buneary out from the garden and straight for the field.


	9. Heat of Battle

Chapter 8: Heat of Battle

"You ready for battle, Gliscor?" Ash asked the poison bug pokemon.

("You bet!") Gliscor said, sticking his tongue out to one side, making him look goofy.

"Heh," Trent the fire fighter said. "I hope your Gliscor is worth a challenge against my Growlithe."

"We're more than a match for you," Ash said. "Gliscor, let's start things up by bouncing high into the air."

("O.K.") Gliscor said, sitting upon his tail as he began bouncing on it. Then, with one final bounce, Gliscor bounced right up into the air, soon catching the wind in his wings.

"All right, Gliscor," Ash said. "Now come straight down with a Steel Wing attack!" Gliscor's wings glowed before he began descending toward Growlithe. However, as Gliscor came shooting down, Trent smirked, knowing full well Gliscor was in a position for an attack he may not be able to dodge.

"All right, Growlithe," Trent said. "Use Flamethrower!" Growlithe opened up his mouth and shot forth a stream of fire, aimed right at Gliscor.

"Gliscor, dodge it, quick!" Ash yelled. Gliscor however, seeing the stream of fire coming at him, completely lost all his confidence and got scared as he suddenly turned toward Ash and began flying toward him, tears welling up in his eyes. "Whoa! Wait! Gliscor, the battle's over there! Don't come to me!"

"Quick Harley!" Brock yelled, pushing Harley right towards Ash. "Human shield!"

"Wha- Brock!" Harley yelled, crashing into Ash moments before Gliscor did as well, crushing both the trainers.

"Ow!" came Harley's muffled voice. "This hurts."

"Now you know how I feel," Ash said.

Trent could only stand there and laugh at the scenery. "How funny and pathetic!" he laughed. "Figured a trainer like you would have such a coward of a pokemon."

"What?" Ash asked angrily as he and Harley managed to get Gliscor off of them.

"You heard me," Trent said with a smug smile.

"Oh yeah?" Ash said. "Well we'll show you, right Gliscor?"

("Umm,") Gliscor said uncertainly.

"Hey Gliscor," Ash said gently to him. "Sometimes the best way to overcome fear is to face it head on."

"Apply directly to the forehead," Brock joked.

"Har, har," Harley said sarcastically. "Very funny."

"So what do you say, Gliscor?" Ash asked. "You think you can handle it?"

("I'll try,") Gliscor said with as much certainty in his voice as possible.

"All right then," Ash said. "Let's try this again. Steel Wing!"

("You can do it, Gliscor!") Pikachu yelled, cheering his teammate on. Once again Gliscor's wings began glowing as he flew straight towards Growlithe again.

"Oh please," Trent said. "What makes you think the same thing won't happen? Growlithe, flamethrower." Growlithe shot out another stream of fire right at Gliscor again as he came in close.

"Spin over the top and don't you stop!" Ash cried. Gliscor spun to his left, barely dodging the flamethrower before he began spinning right and up over the attack as he finally made contact with Growlithe. The puppy howled in pain as he got knocked back some. "Way to go, Gliscor! I knew you could do it."

"You do know I'm not happy with what you did to me," Harley said to Brock.

"Sorry," Brock said guiltily.

"All right, Growlithe," Trent said. "Let's take this battle inside."

"Wait!" Ash said. "What do you mean we're battling inside? What about all the stuff inside?"

"Shows how much you know," Trent said. "Don't worry about damaging property. There are pokemon inside to keep attacks from doing such damage. So we're O.K. to battle indoors." With that said, Trent ran inside.

"Come on, Gliscor," Ash said. "Let's wrap this up."

("All right,") Gliscor said, following after Ash as they went in.

"I never heard of an indoor pokemon battle before," Brock said, picking up Pikachu as he and Harley followed in pursuit.

"Well Tyler is the ruler of this city," Harley said. "So I guess whatever he says goes."

Going inside the fire station, Ash and Gliscor quickly caught up to Trent, running straight into the garage where two fire trucks sat. "Now Gliscor, use Poison Tail." Gliscor's tail glowed an ill pale purple glow as he flew on ahead, catching up to Growlithe.

"Use Agility!" Trent ordered. Growlithe increased his speed before disappearing in a blink of an eye. Ash and Gliscor stopped, looking around for Growlithe.

"Where'd he go?"

"Now use Flame Wheel," Trent said. From up above came a Flame Wheel, straight down from the pole as it made contact with Gliscor. Gliscor slammed up against one of the fire trucks, falling to the ground.

"Gliscor!" Ash cried, running over to his pokemon. "Gliscor, are you all right?"

("A little bruised, but I'm fine,") Gliscor replied.

"You think you can keep going?" Ash asked.

("I think so,") Gliscor said.

"All right then," Ash said. "Use X-Scissor." Growlithe flew up and crossed his now glowing vices.

"Use Fire Blast," Trent said. Growlithe spat out a small fireball at Gliscor. The fireball quickly enlarged into a human shape, stopping Gliscor as he began freaking out. Unable to move due to fear engulfing him, the Fire Blast made direct contact and knocked Gliscor all the way up to the ceiling.

"Looks like Ash is down a pokemon," Harley said.

"Gliscor's not really the best when it comes to battling," Brock said.

"How so?" asked Harley.

"Everytime someone orders an attack, Gliscor freaks out and retreats," Brock said. "But it only seems to happen when some really strong moves are used against him."

"I see," Harley said as Gliscor fell onto the ground.

"Hey Ash!" Brock said. "Is Gliscor all right?"

"Somewhat," Ash replied back. "He's got some severe burns on him and he fell from such a height."

"You thinking about giving up, kid?" Trent asked, leaning against the fire truck. "If I were you, I would."

"We're far from giving up," Ash said, returning Gliscor to his pokeball. "And we're definitely not going to lose."

"Oh yeah?" Trent asked, smirking. "Then bring it on. We can take whatever pokemon you throw at us."

"All right then," Ash said, thrwoing another pokeball up into the air. "Donphan, come on out and use Roll Out!"

Out from the burst of light came an elephant like pokemon with tusks, a snout, and black armor covering his back. ("Try and stop me if you can,") Donphan said as he curled up into a ball and began rolling down to Growlithe.

"Use another Fire Blast!" Trent ordered. Once again Growlithe spat out a fireball which expanded into human size. The Fire Blast made direct contact with Donphan, however, being that Donphan was rolling faster, he managed to break right through the attack, surprising Trent and Growlithe long enough for Donphan to land on top of Growlithe. He then rolled off and uncurled.

"Growlithe!" Trent cried. "Come on! You've got to get up!" Growlithe was seen struggling to get up, pain coursing through his body after being crushed. Finally, Growlithe was up on all fours again, at least until he decided to slump back down and slip into unconsciousness. Trent stood there, completely speechless.

"What was that about you taking me on with whatever pokemon I throw at you?" Ask asked with a smirk this time.

"Don't get so cocky, kid," Trent said, returning his pokemon. "This battle's far from over. And I'm going to be the one to win this."

"Oh yeah?" Ash asked. "Then let's see what you've got."

"You asked for it," Trent said, drawing out another pokeball. "Go Croconaw!"

_________________________________________________________________________________________

"Butterfree, let's start off with Psybeam," Soledad ordered.

("Right,") Butterfree said, releasing a rainbow colored beam at Smoochum.

"Dodge it," Tara said without any enthusiasm. The Smoochum twirled out of the way of the Psybeam just as it hit. "Now use Charm." Smoochum placed one paw on her hip while the other was placed behind her head and she remained in that pose, winking at Butterfree.

"Use Gust," Soledad ordered. Butterfree began flapping its wings, creating a powerful wind attack. Smoochum broke her pose to resist against the wind. Tara, however, was unfazed by the wind as she remained standing there, arms crossed.

"Use your Psybeam," she said. Smoochum shot out her own rainbow colored beam, making a strike against Butterfree who was slow in dodging.

"Butterfree!" Soledad cried out. "Use Psychic."

"Use your Psychic too," Tara ordered. Both pokemon used Psychic on each other, which resulted in cancelling both attacks out.

"Wow!" Dawn said. "I can't believe they both cancelled out the same attack."

"Most attacks can do that," May said. "And when that happens, the trainers have about a minute or so to call out an attack, being that when cancelling out an attack, both defenses are down, which is a good time to strike, if you happen to be a really experienced trainer and all. Luckily for us, Soledad happens to be one of those experienced trainers."

"All right, Butterfree," Soledad said. "Let's wrap this up with Silver Wind and Psychic." Butterfree began flapping its wings again, releasing some aeriel attacks mixed in with the wind. Quickly following, Butterfree used Psychic to control the Silver Wind. The Silver Wind went up over what little smoke was left and down upon an unexpected Smoochum.

"Smoochum!" Tara cried, showing some concern. Unable to take on the combo attack, Smoochum was blown back to Tara who caught her. "You all right?" Smoochum's reply was slumping her head forward as she slipped into unconsciousness. "Well then, looks like I underestimated you, pokemon coordinator."

A flicker of surpise shot over Soledad's face. "You've got a good eye to know what I am," Soledad said. "How did you know?"

"I haven't become pokemon trainer for nothing," Tara said. "I study the ways a pokemon moves to detemine how strong they are and what kind of trainer they belong to."

"I think I get it," May said. "When Tara begins a battle, she uses a pokemon that has some skill, but isn't all that great in battle, like Smoochum. She used Smoochum to start things off so she can expect what type of moves are yet to come. So she'll be able to counter every move Soledad makes."

"Looks like you've got me all figured out," Tara said, a small smirk upon her face.

"Wow May!" Dawn said awestruck. "I never knew you knew so much. How did you know?"

"A coordinator like me manages to observe certain things while watching a battle," May said.

"Well now that you know my little secret, perhaps it's time to take drastic measures," Tara said. "How do you feel about an indoor battle?"

"Sounds perfect to me," Soledad said.

"Then come on out, Wigglytuff!" Tara said, throwing a pokeball into the. In a burst of light, a tall, pink pokemon stood before everyone.

("Hi there,") the Wigglytuff said.

"Oh wow!" Dawn said, taking out her pokedex. "I've never seen one of those before."

_"Wigglytuff, the pink humanoid like pokemon,"_ the pokedex said. _"Wigglytuff is the evolved form of Jigglypuff and has more fighting skills then it's preevolved form. Be cautious when it sings, for all who hear it will be put to sleep."_

"So," Tara said. "Shall we go inside?"

"You mean we can battle inside buildings?" Dawn asked. "But what if we break something?"

"Don't worry about it," Soledad said. "They keep pokemon around to use Protect incase an attack should break through."

"Well that's cool," Dawn said as Tara ran into the museum.

"Come back here," Soledad said, giving chase as May and Dawn followed.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

"Geez, what a crowd!" Tracy said as he and Drew practically forced their way through to see what the big excitement was. "I don't see how Conway managed to get through this with ease."

"Well he's up there," Drew said. "And we're about too also." With one great shove, Tracy and Drew managed to break through the crowd in time to see a Beedrill getting knocked unconscious by an Eevee. However, this Eevee was an Eevee of a different color. Unlike all the other shiny Eevee seen, white, beige, or any other, this Eevee was pink.

"Beedrill, no!" cried the Beedrill's trainer, a girl with short, blond hair. The girl's opponent across from her looked very young, yet was very cute. She had short, curly blond hair and she was wearing nothing but a tank top and a pair of jeans.

"Ha!" she said. "Told you you'd be no match for my Eevee. Come on and bring out your next pokemon. I'm eager for a battle!"

"Enjoying the show you two?" Conway asked, sneaking up from behind Drew and Tracy, surprising them.

"How can we be enjoying something when we only just got here?" Tracy asked.

"Agreed," Drew said.

"Well I think you should know that this girl is quite the battler," Conway said. "Her name is Heather Styles. And as you already know, her Eevee is pink."

"Yeah, about that," Drew said. "I don't recall Eevee ever being pink."

"That's because she's not," Conway said. "Her trainer probably just dyed her pink and the color got stuck. Anyway, I think you should stick around. The more we get to know about our opponents, the greater we get to know thier weak points."

"Not sure if that makes a lot of sense, but I guess you have a point," Tracy said as the three turned thier attention back to the battle.

"All right, Ninjask," Heather's opponent said. "You're up." Out from the pokeball came a ninja bug like pokemon, his wings beating fast.

"A Ninjask, huh?" Heather said, smirking. "This is going to be easier than I thought."

"We'll see about that," the girl said. "Use Agility." The Ninjask began to move left and right at a fast pace, all the meanwhile moving closer to the Eevee. Heather kept her smirk, like she knew what was coming.

"All right, Rosie," Heather said. "You know what to do."

("Right,") the Eevee, Rosie said as she stood where she was, not even taking a battle stance. The NInjask closed the distance space between him and Rosie when his trainer ordered out an attack.

"Now use Fury Swipes!" The Ninjask swiped a claw at Rosie, but as he did, Rosie disappeared in a blink of an eye, appearing right behind Ninjask.

"Now Rosie, use Bite!" Heather ordered.

("Got you,") Rosie said, leaping at the Ninjask and clamping her teeth down upon his wing, causing him to go limp to the ground.

"Now twirl him around and send him to town," Heather said. Rosie began spinning around, all teh meanwhile keeping Ninjask's wing in her mouth. Finally, releasing Ninjask, Ninjask went flying toward a bookshelf and would have crashed into it had a Wartortle showed up last second and threw up a green barrier. The Ninjask bounced off the barrier and landed on the ground.

"Ninjask!" the girl cried. "Can you get up? Are you going to be all right?" Ninjask looked over to his bitten wing, trying to get it to move. However, it moved a lot slower than his other wing did, making it difficult to get back up into the air.

"All right, Rosie," Heather said. "Let's finish things up. Use teh top of the bookshelf and use an Iron Tail attack."

("You got it,") Rosie said, leaping up on top of the bookshelf. Rosie's tail then began to glow as she leapt off of the bookshelf, flipping around and building momentum as she smacked Ninjask into the ground. She then leapt off and got back onto the table she was on to begin with and watched as the Ninjask struggled to get up, but finally slumped down in defeat.

"And with that, you're down two pokemon," Heather said as her opponent returned her pokemon.

"Darn it," the girl said, obviously not expecting to be in this situation already.

"Come on," Heather said. "You're boring me over here. Can't you give me a pokemon worth the challenge?"

"Fine then," the girl said. "If you want a challenge, I'll give you one. Have to say though I wasn't really expecting to use my best until the semi-finals, but you've forced my hand. Go Vileplume." Out from the girl's pokeball came a flower pokemon, its huge petals overing its body to make it look like one.

"That's your best pokemon?" Heather asked mockingly. "If that's the case then this is going to be all too easy."

"Don't always judge a pokemon by how weak you think it is," the girl said. "Vileplume is a lot tougher than you give it credit for."

"Well then bring it on," Heather said. "Let's see what your Vileplume has got."

_______________________________________________________________________________________

("It smells so heavenly,") Buneary said, taking a whiff of a few flowers she picked out. ("I can't remember the last time I've been in a field of flowers. It feels wonderful.") Leaning against a boulder, watching her, Machop could only smile, happy that Buneary was happy.

("I'm glad I could mae your day,") he said, grabbing Buneary's attention, her eyes half closed in a happy dream state kind of way.

("Thank you, Machop,") Buneary said. ("Now that I know this is out here, I think I'll enjoy coming here everyday.")

("You know you don't have to keep leaving,") Machop said. ("Pokemon are allowed to stay here for as long as they want to to thier hearts content.")

("Really?") Buneary asked.

("Of course,") Machop said, getting off of the boulder and walking over to her. ("Pokemon from all over come to stay here as long as they want because of what this city has. And you're just as welcomed to stay like all the others. Consider yourself my special guest.")

As he was saying this, he brought his hands up and gently grasped Buneary's paws within them staring into her eyes all the while smiling while Buneary could only blush.

("Machop,") she said. ("I have to admit you are quite the charmer.")

("It's a gift,") Machop said.

("But you have to understand, I already have a mate.") As Buneary was saying all this, she slipped her hands out from Machop's grasp and groomed down her fluff.

("Of course,") Machop said. ("Forgive me. I tend to get that way when I look at a lovely female such as yourself, mate or no mate.")

("I'm going to excuse you for making a move on me, Machop,") Buneary said. ("There is a line that is not to be crossed and you're already on thin ice. I have a mate and I would never cheat on him.")

("You're right,") Machop said guiltily. ("I did go overboard. Sorry.")

("I fogive you,") Buneary said.

("Excuse me,") someone said, grabbing the attention of the two as a male Buneary came walking over. ("I hope I'm not interrupting anything.")

("You're not,") Buneary said. ("It's Brian, right?")

("You are correct,") Brian said. ("Anyway, I don't think I had the chance to properly make myself known. I'm Brian, Ben's Buneary as you surely already know.")

("Of course,") Buneary said.

("If it's all right with you, um, you wouldn't mind if,") Brian tried saying, looking for the right words to say. ("It's been a long time since I've seen another Buneary. You wouldn't mind if we went on a walk together, would you? I mean, I'm not trying to make it sound like I want to get to know you so I can-")

("I think I get the general idea of what you want,") Buneary said. ("And I'll oblige. Excuse me, Machop.")

("Of course,") Machop said. ("Come look for me when you finish your walk.")

("All right,") Buneary said as she turned and began walking with Brian. Watching her go, Machop gave an oddly looking smily with a gleam in his eye.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

("You must really like this hottub,") Alf said, sitting on the edge with his feet in the water. ("I have to say, I didn't think I'd see you again.")

("Why would you think something like that?") Grotle asked. ("I'm just back here enjoying my life for the moment. Besides, I can't remember when I've been on a vacation like this.")

("You must have been one hard working pokemon if you've never been on a vacation,") Alf said.

("Somewhat,") Grotle said. ("What about you? You ever battled hard in your life?")

("Can't say I have,") Alf said. ("May have battled a few pokemon here or there, but not much battling in my life. I'm more of the nonbattling types.")

("I hear you,") Grotle chuckled. ("I'm known for making peace among others when there's fighting going on.")

("That's cool!") Alf said. ("You know, I'd like to see you in battle while the tournament's going on. Though I'm not one to battle, I do like watching how others battle and win through many different ways.")

("Well then the next time my master battles, I'll definitely be in among it,") Grotle said.

("Great!") Alf said. ("I'm looking forward to that!")

("Grotle!") someone suddenly yelled out, getting Grotle and Alf to look up into the sky to see Staravia flying down.

("Hey Staravia,") Grotle said. ("What's going on?")

("We got trouble,") Staravia replied. ("And you're the only one who can stop this.")

("What's going on?") Alf asked.

("No time to explain,") Staravia said. ("Follow me.") With that, Staravia flew back into the sky and flew toward where the trouble was, Grotle and Alf following at a brisk pace.


	10. An Indoor Battle

Chapter 9: An Indoor Battle

"Now Croconaw, use Water Gun!" Trent yelled out to his pokemon. The alligator pokemon bloated his cheeks before releasing a powerful water attack on Donphan.

"Dodge, and use Take Down!" Ash yelled.

Donphan leapt to the side just as the Water Gun was about to hit and charged at Croconaw who broke off his attack.

"Dodge and use Bite," Trent ordered. Croconaw stood his ground as Donphan got closer. Then, just as Donphan was about to make contact with Croconaw, Croconaw leapt up right onto Donphan's back and snapped his jaw over Donphan's right ear. Donphan bellowed out in pain as he ran around, trying to smash Croconaw against the walls.

"Donphan, Roll Out!" Ash yelled out. Donphan jumped in teh air and curled into a ball, Croconaw letting go as Donphan rolled away form him, only to turn about at the pole and roll right toward Croconaw again.

"Croconaw," Trent said. "Run toward the fire enginge and slide."

("I hear you,") Croconaw siad as he began running toward the fire engine, Donphan catching up quickly. Just as Donphan was about to roll over Croconaw, Croconaw slid forward under the fire truck and sliding out onto the other side. Donphan, however, couldn't stop rolling as he rolled straight toward the firetruck. Just as he was about to hit the truck, a geen barrier was thrown up between Donphan and the truck. Donphan hit the barrier and his attack had ended, throwing him off his feet and onto his back.

"Croconaw, up and over," Trent ordered. "And then use Slash!" Croconaw smirked before aiming a blast of Water Gun directly upon the ground, instantly shooting him up into the air as he shot over the firetruck. His claws sharpened up as he descended on Donphan who ws struggling to get up.

"Quick Donphan! Use Defense Curl!" Donphan curled himself up again, but Trent had quickly changed strategy.

"Change of plans, Croconaw. Use Brick Break and then Slash!" Using his other paw, Croconaw smashed down hard upon Donphan with enough force that it actually knocked him out from his Defense Curl. Then, with his other paw, Croconaw swiped at Donphan's exposed underbelly, leaving a nice gash of his clawmarks in them. "Now Water Pulse!"

Croconaw bloated up his cheeks again before releasing another wave of water at Donphan. Only difference was, this stream of water had a bit of a pinkish glow to it as it made contact. "Donphan!" Ash cried out as Donphan hit the ground and bounced onto his stomach. Donphan then got up and opened his eyes, revealing a pink glow within them.

"That's not good," Brock said. "Donphan's confused."

"Donphan!" Ash yelled out. "Come on. Shake it off, buddy."

("Clear your mind and focus!") Pikachu yelled out. However, Donphan seemed to zoned out as he began charging at the firetruck, only ending up hitting another green barrier to protect the engine from being damaged. Donphan got up and bellowed again, scraping a paw upon the ground, getting ready to attack the fire engine again.

"Well I think it's high time to wrap this up," Trent said. "Croconaw, use Seismic Toss!

("Donphan!") Pikachu yelled again, this time being Donphan's main attraction as he looked straight at Pikachu, still confused. (_"Oh crap!"_) Pikachu thought. (_"I think I just became Donphan's next target."_)

As he finished his thoughts, Donphan began charging at him, curling into a ball and using Roll Out toward Pikachu.

"Pikachu!" Ash cried out before running to save his best friend. Ash practically leapt and scooped up Pikachu in his arms just as Donphan reached them. Brock, Harley, and even Trent looked on in surprise by Ash's courageous and bold move to save Pikachu, taking his place as Ash was hit hard by Donphan'a Roll Out, flying into the air and hitting the wall high up above ground.

("Ash!") Pikachu cried out as Ash began to fall, being rescued by Brock and Harley just before he could hit the ground.

"Hey, you all right?" Brock asked.

"A little," Ash said weakly. "I can't breathe much."

"What in the world possessed you to do that?" Harley asked outragingly. "You must have a death wish."

At this time, Donphan had stopped his Roll Out attack and looked around in confusion, the pink glow in his eyes fading. ("Huh? What happened?") The next thing Donphan knew, the entire room seemed to have completely flipped before darkness overcame him.

("Sorry I was a little late using my attack there,") Croconaw said as he gave a sigh of relief.

"Why?" Trent asked, receiving quizzical looks from Ash, Brock, and Harley. "Why did you risk your life for your Pikachu for? Why did you take the hit and receive all the injuries instead of him?"

"Let me ask you something, Trent," Ash said. "You're a firefighter, right?"

"I am," Trent said. "You put your life on the line saving people from burning buildings. I put my life on the line protecting my pokemon because they're more than just creatures used to be battled, they're my friends. And I'd go as far as I have to to make sure that they stay protected. That's why."

Trent stared in shock at Ash as he said this, clearly pondering his words over while, Ash stared at him, never blinking. Brock and Harley just looked between the two as silence occurred for several minutes before Trent spoke.

"You know, you're absolutely right. We all put our lives on the line to protect the people and pokemon that live in this world. And we all do different things to protect. Ash, I want to apologize for my abrupt behavior. When I get too into things, I become hotheaded and act completely irrational."

"It's all right," Ash said. "I have to admit, I get hotheaded at times too. Then I get irrational as well."

"I see," Trent said with a half-hearted chuckle. "Well then, how about we finish this battle rationally?"

"Sounds good to me," Ash said, having a coughing fit before throwing out his last pokeball. "All *cough* right. Come on out! * cough*"

_______________________________________________________________________________________

"Hey!" Dawn said as she followed May and Soledad into the museum. "Where'd she go? She must be pretty fast."

"You don't think she forfeited, do you?" May asked.

"Far from it," Soledad said. "She's using the advantage of the indoors to try and take me down. At all times, I have to be on guard." The three remained silent as they looked about the room, hoping to see Tara's Wigglytuff, but to no avail did they see it.

From the corners of the shadows, to which any of them couldn't see, stood Tara, watching as her opponent searched around for her and her Wigglytuff. She smirked, feeling victorious that she would win the battle. "Now Wigglytuff, use Dynamic Punch!"

Hearing Tara's voice, Soledad, May, and Dawn loked around more quickly, expecting to see her Wigglytuff pop out of hiding. However, they looked every which way but in one general direction: up. Down from the ceiling came Wigglytuff, her paw glowing as she came down upon Butterfree who was smashed hard into the ground, catching the attention of the three females.

"Butterfree!" Soledad cried out as Butterfree crashed into the ground. Wigglytuff jumped off and landed on her feet as Butterfree struggled to get back up. Wigglytuff ran forward again and leapt into the air, crshing down on Butterfree's head, smashing it into the ground. Dawn gasped while May stood there, shocked as Butterfree lied there unconscious.

"Well," Tara said from where she was. "Looks like I win this round."

"I just underestimated you, that's all," Soledad said, returning her pokemon. "Now the real battle begins. Go Pidgeot!"

"A Pidgeot, huh?" Tara said. "This is going to be an even easier battle than I thought. All right, Wigglytuff. Double Team."

Wigglytuff immediately sent out copies of herself and filled the room with at least twenty or so of her. Soledad looked around, wondering which one was teh real Wigglytuff.

"All right then," she siad. "If that's how you want to play. Pidgeot, Quick Attack!" Pidgeot began flying around the room, gaining speed before descending upon all the Wigglytuff, passing through each one of the copies. Passing through the last Wigglytuff, Pidgeot stopped his attack and looked around, spotting no other Wigglytuff in the room as far as he could see.

"It's gone!" May said. "Where'd it go?"

("Hard to hit what keeps disappearing, eh?") came Wigglytuff's voice from the next room over.

"It's coming from that room!" Dawn said, pointing toward the room Wigglytuff's voice came out from.

("I'll find you no matter what!") Pidgeot said as he flew into the next room, the girls right behind him. Into the next room, they went from being in the history exhibit into the painting exhibit.

"Wow!" Dawn marveled. "Look at all these paintings! The artists that made them must have been really artistic!"

"Was that supposed to be a joke?" May asked.

"Where is she?" Soledad wondered, observing the room. "There are so many paintings that her Wigglytuff could blend in with. So which painting would she blend in with most?"

Soledad continued observing the room. There were many paintings hanging on the wall. There were small frames, medium frames, and then there were really huge paintings. And one of those huge paintings had a Wigglytuff in them. "Aha! Pidgeot, use Gust!"

Pidgeot began flapping his wings, creating a powerful gust in the room, targeting the Wigglytuff in front of the painting, or so he thought as the painting fell off, landing flat on the ground, the Wigglytuff being trapped underneath.

"That was the wrong Wigglytuff!" May said.

"So then where's the real one?" Dawn asked.

"I goofed," Soledad said as the real Wigglytuff leapt up behind Pidgeot.

"Now use Slam," Tara's voice came. The Wigglytuff thrust her body downward upon Pidgeot, smashing him hard into the ground before leaping off. "Now use Sing!"

"Quick!" May yelled. "Cover your ears!" All three did so just in time as Wigglytuff began singing, putting Pidgeot to sleep.

"Pidgeot, use Razor Wind!" Soledad yelled, but to no avail did it work.

"Finish this up with Dynamic Punch," Tara said. Wigglytuff's paw glowed as she ran forward, punching Pidgeot hard in the face, knocking him back against the wall. Swirly eyes formed on Pidgeot, indicating that he was down and out.

"Pidgeot!" Soledad cried.

"Whoa!" Dawn said. "I can't believe she managed to take down two of Soledad's pokemon. And she's still on her second pokemon."

"She really knows a trainer when she sees one," May said as Soledad returned Pidgeot.

"Well I have to admit," Soledad said. "You're better than I expected."

"Thank you," Tara said, coming out from her hiding spot. "You're not that bad yourself, but what you lack is the ability to observe with a better eye."

"I still have one pokemon left to beat you with," Soledad said. "So maybe I can try with him."

"Well let's see how well you fare," Tara said.

"Go, my friend!" Soledad yelled, throwing out her last pokeball as it opened up, releasing the pokemon from inside.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

"Vileplume, use Magical Leaf!" the Vileplume's trainer yelled. The Vileplume released a couple of leaves aimed at Rosie the Eevee who dodged them by leaping and spinning in between them.

"Now use Growl!" Heather ordered. Rosie landed and growled rather furiously, causing Vileplume to flinch, giving Heather a chance to attack. "Quick, while it's distracted. Bite!" Rosie rushed forward and bit at one of Vileplume's arms, causing Vileplume to flail her arm around, trying to shake Rosie off. Rosie, getting dizzy from being flailed around so much, released her grip and landed back some right before back flipping high into the air, landing back on top of the book shelf. "Way to go! Now use Iron Tail!"

Rosie leapt off the book shelf as her tail began to glow, diving toward Vileplume, but Vileplume's trainer was ready for this. "I was hoping you'd pull that trick again," she said with a smirk. "Vileplume, Petal Dance!" Vileplume began dancing around, releasing petals from her large petal flower head as they all flew toward Rosie.

"Well too bad," Heather said. "Because I expected you to attack me."

"What?" Heather's opponent said surprised as the attacks hit Rosie, only to have Rosie disappear. "Where'd she go?"

"Now finish this up with Shadow Ball!" Heather said. Vileplume looked around panickly, wondering where the attack would strike from. Nothing could be seen except for rows and rows of books. And in between two books was an Eevee's head with a Shadow Ball in its mouth. The attack was released and hit Vileplume dead on, causing some major damage.

"Vileplume!" the girl cried out as the Vileplume was knocked off from the table it stood upon.

"Now use Iron Tail again!" Heather commanded. Rosie leapt out from her spot, her tail glowing as she she made contact with Vileplume.

"Vileplume, use Stun Spore," the girl ordered. Vileplume was seen getting up and preparing to launch its attack, but Rosie quickly fired up a Shadow Ball and fired it right at the middle where the petals connected, causing one huge explosion.

Once everything was cleared up, Vileplume was seen on the ground, swirls in its eyes. The Vilplume's trainer just looked on in disappointment and defeat. "No, Vileplume."

"You did your best," Heather said. "Good job!"

"Thanks," the girl said, returning her pokemon.

"All right all you people," Heather said, turning her attention to the crowd. "Battle's over. Nothing more to see here for today." People started to disperse from the area, vacating the library to continue on with their everyday lives while others began walking around the place, searchign for a good book to read.

"That was an exceellent battle," Conway commented. "Not once did you switch out your pokemon. I'm impressed."

"Thank you," Heather said. "I'm Heather Styles by the way. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Conway," Conway said. "And these are my friends. Tracy and Drew."

"Hi there," Tracy said with a wave of his hand.

"A pleasure," Drew said. "I've never seen a pink Eevee before. Have you dyed her or something?"

"Yup," Heather said. "I'm definitely into pink. And I just thought it'd look cute to an Eevee like Rosie."

"And I'm guessing that's the reason you named your Eevee that, right?" Conway guessed.

"You're good," Heather said.

"Hate to break conversation, but I'm going to go ahead and see how Soledad did," Drew said. "No doubt she won."

"Oh yeah," Tracy said. "And I wonder how Ash has done."

"Ash?" Heather asked. "You don't mean Ash Ketchum, do you?"

"How do you know him?" Tracy asked.

"I watched him compete against Drake on Pummelo," Heather said. "I originate from the Orange Islands."

_______________________________________________________________________________________

("So I take it that you're a contest battler, am I not correct?") Brian asked, making conversation with Buneary. Buneary stopped sniffing some flowers to look over at him.

('I am,") she said. ("But how did you know that?")

("Ben's a Pokemon Breeder,") Brian said. ("And I'm his top pokemon. He taught me how to tell what pokemon does what in their life and how strong or weak they are by taking note of what they look like and what kind of attacks they have.")

("That's interesting,") Buneary said intrigued. ("So just how could you tell I'm a contest battler?")

("By the way your fur and fluff are well groomed,") Brian said. ("You must have a trainer who cares for you a lot.")

("She does,") Buneary said. ("She cares about me and my team very much.")

("That's always wonderful to know,") Brian said. ("And if you don't mind me saying, I think you look radiantly beautiful.")

("Thank you,") Buneary said, blushing. ("But you must understand, Brian. I'm already taken by someone else.")

("And that much I can understand,") Brian said. ("It's that Pikachu, isn't it? The one with the huge scar across his body?")

("Yeah,") Buneary said, sighing rather depressingly.

("I can tell he's a fearsome warrior in battle,") Brain said. ("Though you can't see it, he's strong. I can see it in his arms and legs. And I hate to poke my nose and annoy you with this, but exactly how did he get that scar? Did you two have some kind of fallout?")

("Brian,") Buneary said irritably. ("I understand that you're only concerned with us, but there is such a thing as pushing it too far.")

("You're right,") Brian said. ("Sorry for pushing. Curiosity does that sometimes.")

("It's fine,") Buneary reassured him with a smile.

("Say,") Brian said. ("I think I heard that there's a cave somewhere nearby in the mountains. Did you, I don't know, want to explore together?")

("Sure!") Buneary said, catching up with Brian before the two of them walked for the caves. As they left the flowerfields, they passed by Machop talking to a Sunflora. Buneary let him know where she was going and he was fine with it. As they walked off, Machop watched after them until they were out of sight. Then, after staring in the same place for a little while longer, he walked off, a smirk forming upon his face.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Grotle and Alf continued after Staravia, running at a brisk pace to get to where Staravia said there was trouble. ("We're almost there,") he said a few minutes later. ("It's right over this hill.") Trudging up the hill, Grotle and Alf stopped and looked down below to see Staravia flying down to where there was a group of pokemon gathered in front of a familiar looking Chimchar who looked like he was ready to take them all on.

("Oh good grief!") Grotle said, rolling his eyes. ("Here we go again.")

("You know that Chimchar?") Alf asked.

("Unfortunately,") Grotle said. ("He's on my team. Come on. We better go and stop him from getting into any more trouble.") The two quickly made their way down to the bottom of the hill, quickly making their way over to the scene. ("What have you done this time, Chimchar?")

("I haven't done anything, yet,") Chimchar growled, glaring at the group of pokemon before him. ("I was just walking around and they suddenly showed up claiming that I was on thier turf and told me to beat it.")

("And then he got into a fight with us,") said the Tyrogue that stood before them, seeming to be the leader of the group.

("Is this true?") Grotle asked Chimchar.

("No,") Chimchar growled. ("Then I got smart with them and insulted them and now they're the ones wanting to pick a fight.")

("Such a liar,") theTyrouge said.

("All right,") Grotle said irritably. ("i'm sorry if my friend caused any trouble. We'll just turn around and leave and let you all be.")

("No can do, shell brain,") the Tyrogue said. ("He insulted us and now he's going to pay. If you get in our way, we'll take you down just as well.")

("You can try,") Alf said.

("Alf!") Grotle yelled, causing Alf to flinch.

("Sorry,") Alf said guiltily. ("I got worked up.")

("Enough talk,") the Tyrogue said. ("Boys, let's take them.") With those words, Tyrouge's gang charged forward, ready to make a scene.

("You always have to make a mess of things, don't you?") Grotle asked.

("Only when it's the others who make trouble first,") Chimchar said as be burst into flames, becoming a wheel of fire as he spun right into the group of oncoming pokemon.

("Guess we have to do things the old fashion way, huh?") Alf asked.

("Guess so,") Grotle said, releasing a fury of Razor Leaves, making contact with a few other pokemon.

("I'm not one to battle, but I will do what I must,") Alf said, releasing an electric attack, zapping a few more pokemon. The Tyrogue frowned, not very happy about the outcome of the battle as Chimchar returned to Grotle and Alf's side. All teh pokemon who were beaten down got up again.

("Come on,") Grotle said. ("There's no point in fighting. We're clearly more stronger than you are.")

("There's every reason to fight,") the Tyrogue said. ("You invaded our turf and had a friend of yours insult us. We won't back down until we get even.") Tyrouge's gang were up now and beginning to charge once more. Grotle, Alf, and Chimchar all got ready to attack again as the pokemon charged. Suddenly, before anything else could happen, a beam of light shot forth in between the two groups, ceasing everyone from doing anything further.

("Enough of your senseless fighting!") someone said. ("There's no point in any of this. And if any of you have a problem, you can take it up with me.")


	11. Sunday Winners

Chapter 10: Sunday Winners

"I cannot believe you called him out," Brock said in absolute shock. "Are you sure this was a really good idea?"

"It's the best I've got," Ash said. "Besides, once this battle's over with, he'll pretty much be of no more use for the rest of the tournament."

"I see your point," Harley said. "But a Snorlax?"

"I've got to admire your choice of pokemon, kid," Trent said. "Sending out a Snorlax who could fall asleep at any moment."

"I'm going to *cough* wrap this up as fast as I can before that happens," Ash said. "Snorlax, let's begin with Body Slam."

("I'm going to flatten you,") Snorlax said to Croconaw.

("You can try,") Croconaw said, leaping out of the way as Snorlax came down.

"Use Slash," Trent ordered. Croconaw's claws sharpened as he slashed at Snorlax. Snorlax grunted as he got back up. "Water Pulse."

"Snorlax, *cough* use Yawn!" Snorlax opened his mouth and out came a pink bubble, followed by another one and another one.

"Water Gun!" Trent ordered. Croconaw began shooting out bursts of water to pop the bubbles before they could even reach him.

"Now use Focus Punch!" Ash yelled. Snorlax charged forward, his fist glowing as he swung down at Croconaw.

"Up and over Croconaw!" Trent said. "And use Seismic Toss." Croconaw stood ready to make his move as Snorlax got near. As Snorlax swung down, Croconaw leapt up onto Snorlax's arm, the attack smashing straight down into the ground. Croconaw leapt off of Snorlax's arm and flipped over his head, grabbing it and lifting Snorlax over his.

"Use Rest!" Ash said right before Snorlax hit the ground.

"Now that was a smooth move," Brock said. "Putting to Snorlax to sleep like that prevented him from gaining any injuries."

"Yeah but now he's vulnerable to attack," Harley added.

"Now use Aqua Jet!" Trent commanded. Croconaw nodded before shooting forward, becoming nothing more than a water bullet.

"Oh no!" Ash yelled, coughing. "Snorlax!"

As Croconaw was about to make contact with Snorlax, however, Snorlax began to snore, and by snore, I mean he took one, long, deep snore, shaking the entire place. The snore was so loud that everyone lost their balance to cover their ears because of the loud snore. Croconaw broke off his Aqua Jet attack, harmlessly hitting Snorlax and bouncing off.

"Wow!" Ash said. "What was that?"

"I think Snorlax just learned Snore," Brock said. "If a pokemon who knows Snore is asleep, Snore is automatically triggered, throwing the opponent's guard off." As it was, Croconaw was dazed by the attack as Snorlax woke up.

"Quick, Snorlax!" Ash coughed. "Use Body Slam while Croconaw's off guard!"

"Croconaw," Trent yelled. "Ice Beam!"

Croconaw looked over to his trainer, the words not fully processing to his brain as Snorlax body slammed Croconaw.

"Croconaw!" Snorlax got up, revealing a knocked out Croconaw. "Have to hand it to you, kid. You did an excellent job with that Snore technique, even though you didn't know your Snorlax had it."

"Thanks," Ash said with another cough. "But this match still isn't over."

"How right you are," Trent said with a chuckle. "Now Golem. Your turn."

The Golem who had been stading next to the fire truck came walking over, readying himself for battle.

"This is it," Ash thought. "If I don't win this, I'm out of the tournament for sure."

"Golem, use Roll Out!"

Golem withdrew into his rock and began rolling towards Snorlax.

"Use Focus Punch!" Ash ordered. Snorlax's fist began to glow once more as Golem neared Snorlax. Snorlax swing his fist into the oncoming Roll Out. The Roll Out, unfortunately, broke off Snorlax's attack and hit Snorlax dead on, knocking Snorlax off his feet and onto his back, but before he landed Ash yelled, "Make that landing an Earthquake!"

The moment Snorlax landed, he smashed his arms down upon the ground, causing the earth to quake. The Golem was knocked out from his Roll Out attack and also landed on his back.

"Roll Out again!" Trent ordered once the quake had stopped. Golem retreated into his rock and rolled towards Snorlax.

"You use Roll Out too!" Ash yelled. Snorlax grabbed his legs and curled into a ball, rolling right towards Golem.

"That was a smooth move," Harley said as the two made contact, breaking out of their Roll Out.

"Thanks," Ash said with a coughing fit. "Now use Flamethrower!"

"Protect!" Trent yelled.

Snorlax let loose a stream of fire at Golem who threw up a green barrier, the Flamethrower harmlessly hitting the barrier. Ash gritted his teeth, trying to think up of a way to beat Golem quickly. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head. "All right Snorlax. Use Earthquake."

Snorlax stomped his foot once upon the ground, causing the earth to tremble as Golem hit the ground. Golem was tossed about as the earth shook, being sent back into the air again. "Now use Focus Punch again!" Snorlax's paw began glowing as he ran at Golem as he was coming down.

"Protect again!" Trent yelled. Another green barrier was thrown up before Snorlax even got to Golem. The Focus Punch made contact with the barrier, doing nothing against it, except sending ripples across the barrier.

"Keep it up, Snorlax!" Ash said before coughing again. Over and over Snorlax swing his attack at the barrier, which kept holding up.

"No matter how strong an attack, you won't be able to win, kid," Trent said. "So give it up."

"Just a little more," Ash coughed. Snorlax continued throwing his attack at the barrier. He swung his fist back and brought it forward once more. This time, the barrier broke, Golem finally hitting the ground at last. "Use Stomp and hold him there!"

Snorlax raised a foot and smashed it down hard upon Golem. Golem grimaced as his boulder body formed a small crack in it. "Now use Hyper Beam!"

Trent gasped, realizing there was nothing he could do at this point except for one move. "Quick Golem. Withdraw!" Golem withdrew into his boulder body, hoping he could survive this blast. Snorlax charged up his beam. As he did, he removed his foot from where he stomped and fired the attack right on the crack.

"Golem!" Trent cried out. At first, nothing could be seen but smoke. After some time of long silence, the smoke finally cleared. Snorlax was seen standing, a clear sign that he was all right. But it wasn't Snorlax that was the main concern. It was the boulder in front of Snorlax that everyone worried about. For Ash, he was worried that Golem might have survived and that he would lose, being that he had no more strategy to think of. For Trent, he was worried that his Golem was down and out. The smoke finally cleared and the boulder still remained perfectly still.

"G-Golem?" Trent said, hoping he would be all right. A smile of relief came over him as Golem withdrew from his shell, getting up and turning to face Snorlax.

"No!" Ash said, at a loss of what to do next. Snorlax and Golem stood there, facing each other for several seconds before Golem smiled.

("Good fight,") he said, causing Snorlax to smile and nod right before he collapsed.

"Golem!" Trent cried. Ash's eyes lit up in surprise right before he began cheering.

"Yeah! All right! We won!" He rushed over to Snorlax, despite his hurting rib cage, jumping up and hugging him. "Snorlax, you were awesome. I knew I could count on you."

("You did a god job,") Pikachu said, walking over.

Ash continued hugging Snorlax, laughing as Trent just smiled and returned his fainted Golem. "I have to hand it to you," he said. "You sure did put up a good fight. Congratulations."

"Thanks," Ash said, letting go of Snorlax. "You were pretty good too. You trained your pokemon very well."

"Have to have tough pokemon to be able to handle fires," Trent said.

"So true," Harley said as Ash began coughing again.

"Hey, I'm sorry about what happened with you and your Donphan," Trent said apologetically. "You going ot be O.K.?"

"We better get you to see Dr. Proctor," Brock said. "You might have a few broken ribs."

"Yeah," Ash said with another cough. "Sounds good. Trent, I hope we can have a rebattle some day."

"I look forward to it," Trent said, shaking hands with Ash as Snorlax suddenly dropped to the ground, falling asleep.

"Looks like Snorlax used up all of his energy," Brock said.

"It's good enough," Ash said, returning Snorlax. "You did great." He clipped the pokeball back to his belt before being led out by Brock and Harley.

* * *

"Oh wow!" Dawn said, pulling out her Pokedex. "What is that?

_"Slowbro, the sluggish pokemon,"_ Dawn's pokedex said. _"The evolved form of Slowpoke, a Shellder clamps onto its tail, making it less slower to respond upon evolution."_

"That's so cool!" Dawn said.

"A Slowbro, huh?" Tara said. "This should be an interesting match."

"It sure will be," Soledad said. "Now Slowbro. Let's start things off with Confusion."

A blue glow enveloped the Wigglytuff as she was sent flying into the ceiling. Tara growled softly as her Wigglytuff began falling toward the ground. Wigglytuff hit hard and grimaced as she flew right back up into the air, right into the ceiling before falling down again toward the floor.

"Now step it up a little," Soledad said. "Use Hidden Power!"

Small orbs began to circle Slowbro as Wigglytuff neared the ground. The orbs launched at Wigglytuff, hitting dead on and sending her flying into the wall.

"Wigglytuff!" Tara cried out as Wigglytuff slid to the ground, knocked out. "Well, that was unexpected to say in the least. But my last pokemon won't go down so easy."

"We'll see," Soledad said as Tara returned her Wigglytuff.

"Now go, Mr. Mime!" Tara yelled, throwing out her last pokeball. Out forth from the light came a clown pokemon with hair sticking out on both sides of its head.

"It's a Mr. Mime!" May said astonished. "Should have figured she would have a pokemon like that."

"Go and use Magical Leaf!" Tara commanded. Mr. Mime let loose a fury of leaves that gleaned as they aimed for Slowbro.

"Use Confusion followed by Psychic," Soledad said. A blue glow surrounded the leaves, slowing them to a stop as they just reached Slowbro's face. Slowbro then sent the leaves up into the air and then angled them down toward Mr. Mime.

"Protect," Tara said. A green barrier surrounded Mr. Mime, protecting him from the incoming attack as they bounced harmlessly off the barrier. "Now use Calm Mind." Mr. Mime shut his eyes and focused in on his power.

"Calm Mind?" Dawn asked. "What does that do?"

"It raises the special attack and defense of a pokemon," May told her. "This is going to be harder than it looks."

"Quick Slowbro," Soledad said. "Use Shadow Ball." A black ball formed in Slowbro's mouth, expanding before Slowbro released it. As it neared Mr. Mime, who had suddenly opened his eyes, Tara ordered another attack.

"Now use Focus Punch." Mr. Mime's hand took on a white glow as he swung it forward, detonating the ball. Tara remained where she was, smirking. Soledad, May, and Dawn all stood there, surprised that their attack had failed. "Now use Brick Break."

Mr. Mime rushed forward, hand flat as a board as he swing it forward to make contact with Slowbro's neck.

"Double Team!" Soledad quickly ordered. Mr. Mime swung at Slowbro, only to have it go right through him. It was then Mr. Mime noticed all the other Slowbros surrounding him.

"Light Screen," Tara said rather calmly. A yellow barrier appeared for a few seconds before it disappeared again.

"Now use Earthquake!" Soledad said. Slowbro concentrated all his power as the earth began shaking. Mr. Mime couldn't keep his balance and ended up falling over, the attack hurting him a bit. "And now Dig!"

Slowbro dug underground, causing Tara to gasp in surprise, knowing what was about to happen. Mr. Mime was beginning to get up, oblivious what was about to happen until it happened. Suddenly, he disappeared, dragged underground. "Mr. Mime!" Tara yelled out.

"Wow!" Dawn said. "Soledad's really smart! She took the disadvantage and turned it into an advantage."

"Got to admit," Tara said. "You sure do fancy work for a coordinator."

"Thanks," Soledad said as Mr. Mime came shooting out of the ground, hitting the ceiling before dropping to the floor, unconscious. Slowbro appeared next. "And with that, I win the battle."

"Indeed you do," Tara said, recalling her Mr. Mime. "Ah well. I supposed I was going to lose some time. Just never thought I'd lose this early."

"You really did a good job with your Wigglytuff," May said. "Hiding him among all the art works of the museum."

"Thank you," Tara said with a smile. "And you did a good job with that Earthquake. If you had gone and used any other attack against my Mr. Mime, you would have been blocked by Light Screen. Good strategy."

"A coordinator always has to think quick on their feet," Soledad replied.

"True to that," Tara said as the sound of empty stomachs began growling.

"I guess watching that battle made me hungry!" Dawn said embarrassingly.

"I guess we're all hungry," May said. "Tara, care to join us?"

"Fine by me," Tara said as the four walked out from the museum.

* * *

Everyone turned their attention to the person who had spoken. Before them was a blue looking dinosaur with a huge green bulb on his back.

("Who do you think you are interrupting our fight?") the Tyrogue asked. ("Unless you wish to get involved.")

("I'm not getting involved with anything,") the Bulbasaur said. ("I'm stopping this fight. So you either cooperate or I end this for you.")

("You think you're stronger than us?") the Tyrogue asked. ("No one's tougher than I am. I'll show you what it's like to mess with the wrong guy.") The Tyrogue began charging at the Bulbasaur who remained standing there as Tyrogue closed in, ready to swing at him. However, just as Tyrogue went to hit, he was suddenly stopped, Bulbasuar's paw making contact with Tyrogue's gut.

Tyrogue collapsed in pain while his gang stared on in shock, surprised that a Bulbasaur managed to beat down their leader in one hit. ("I don't care about who's stronger,") the Bulbasaur said. ("All I care about is others getting along with one another. So if you don't wish to humiliate yourself any further, I'd suggest you beat it.")

Tyrogue got up, holding his stomach all the meanwhile groaning in pain. ("Fair enough, Bulbasaur,") he said. ("But I will get my payback on you some day. Be warned. I will get my vengence.") Bulbasaur said nothing. All he did was stare at the Tyrogue as he retreated with his gang. Once they were gone, Grotle walked over to Bulbasaur.

("You all all right?") he asked, his stare becoming a smile.

("Thanks to you we are,") Grotle said. ("You can call me Grotle. The hothead right there is Chimchar and this is Alf.")

("How do you do?") Alf asked.

("Nice to meet you all,") Bulbasaur said. ("You can just call me Bulbasaur. So, you guys live around here?")

("Chimchar and I don't,") Grotle said. ("Though I'm sure Alf wandered here one day and called this place home.")

("You could say something like that,") Alf replied. ("So what about you, Bulb? Where do you come from?")

("I come from Pallet Town,") Bulbasaur replied. ("I was brought here to help my trainer in the tournament.")

("That's cool!") Grotle said with a smile. ("I bet your trainer's nice.")

("He is,") Bulbasaur said. ("Of course, it's been a long time since I've seen him, but I'm sure he's still the same person when I left. So, care to show me around the place?")

("Certainly,") Grotle said.

("Hey,") Alf said. ("Where'd Staravia go?")

("Right up here,") came the answer. Everyone looked up to see the bird swooping down. ("Sorry if I ducked out. I didn't really want to get involved.")

("It's understandable,") Alf said. ("By the way, this is Bulbasaur. He got the fight to stop.")

("Nice to meet you,") Staravia said, turning his attention to the Bulbasaur.

("Same here,") Bulbsaur said.

("Say Bulbasaur,") Grotle said. ("Want to try out the hot tub?")

("Sure!") Bulbasaur replied with a smile as he followed the three back over to the pool. However, staying behind was a pouting Chimchar who walked off on his own, apparently going to look for more trouble.

* * *

May groaned irritably as she sat in the waiting room along with Soledad, Dawn, Harley, Brock, and Tara. "Typical Ash. Always getting himself hurt like this."

"Well what do you expect?" Brock asked. "You can't expect nothing more from Ash then that. And you've traveled with him and I for over a year."

"I guess you're right," May said sighing. "It's just that after being gone for so long, I thought Ash would have at least changed a bit. But then again, some habits die hard."

"That's Ash for you," Dawn said, prompting everyone to laugh.

"Did we miss something funny?" Tracy asked, walking right up with Drew, Conway, and Heather.

"Nah!" Harley replied. "Just talking about good old Ash."

"Speaking of whom, where is he?" Heather asked, holding Rosie in her arms.

"Who are you?" May asked.

"My name is Heather Styles," Heather replied. "Nice to meet you all." Introductions then went around.

"Hey!" Dawn said. "I notice that Ben's not here. Wonder where he got off to."

"Right here," came Ben's voice, followed by Professor Oak and Ash's mom.

"Where've you guys been?" Brock asked.

"We've been watching Ben train with his pokemon," Oak replied. "It truly is remarkable to see a trainer and his pokemon be close to one another. You hardly ever see that any more, with the exception of Ash, that is. Where is Ash anyway?"

"He got hit by his confused Donphan," Harley stated, quickly adding, "He's fine by the way. No need to worry. He just winded up having a coughing fit."

"How did he get hit by Donphan anyway?" Soledad asked.

"Donphan used Roll Out on Pikachu," Brock replied. "But Ash took the hit for him due to Pikachu's scar."

"I hope he'll be all right," Delia said. As she thought this out loud, out from the doors came Ash and Dr. Proctor. Everyone got up and watched as Ash walked over to them.

"Hey," Harley said. "How're you feeling?"

"Like I got trampled on by a herd of Stantler," Ash replied.

"Is he going to be O.K. doctor?" Delia asked.

"Ash will be fine," Protctor replied. "Nothing a few bruised ribs won't heal over time."

"That's good to hear," Drew said. "Glad to know you're O.K."

"Me too," Heather said, catching Ash's attention.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Heather Styles," Heather replied. "I saw your match against Drake on Pummelo."

"You're from the Orange Islands?" Ash said surprised.

"That I am!" Heather said with a smile. It was then Ash noticed Rose.

"Oh cool! A shiny Eevee!" Eevryone anime fell.

"Ash!" Tracy said. "That's not a shiny Eevee. Heather dyed her pink."

"She dyed her Eevee pink?" Ash asked.

"That I did," Heather said. "I like pink. This here is Rose. Say hi Rose."

("Hello!") Rose said.

("Hi there!") Pikachu said, catching Rose's attention.

("Well aren't you cute?") Rose said. ("That's a huge scar you got there.")

("Don't wish to talk about the scar too much,") Pikachu said. ("Kind of personal. And thanks for the compliment, but I already have a girlfriend.")

("Eh, fair enough,") Rose said.

"Just make sure you take it easy for a few days, Ash," Proctor said. "You'll be better in no time."

"All right, Dr. Proctor," Ash said. "Thanks."

Dr. Proctor returned to his business as the group all left to go eat and celebrate the first win for Ash, Soledad, and their new friend Heather. Night soon came about and the group all returned to their hotel rooms, ready for the second day of the tournament to begin.

**AN:** Next chapter begins the second day of the first round. Trainers to battle are some old faces that haven't been seen in quite some time, some even longer.


	12. Second Day

Chapter 11: Second Day

The second day of the tournament began all too quickly. Everyone but Ash was awake as per usual. "I swear if Ash had an important battle he had to go to, he'd totally miss out on it," May said irritably. "But then again, I guess it's to be expected coming from Ash."

"True to that," Harley said, sitting with everyone down in the lobby eating a bowl of cereal. "But fortunately for him he doesn't have a battle until next week. So he can sleep in as late as he wants to."

"Yeah but now the rest of us have to worry getting through this week," Tracy said. "And it's not going to be easy."

"I wouldn't worry about it too much," Ben said. "If you have complete faith in what you're doing, you'll easily get through most of the tournament."

"Speaking of the tournament, who are the ones battling today?" Dawn asked. Everyone looked at their papers to see who would be battling.

"Well what do you know?" Ben said. "Looks like I'm scheduled for battle today."

"Interesting," Harley said. "I'd like to see you in battle and how well you do in it."

Professor Oak nodded his head in agreement. "I'm interested in seeing just how well a battler you are myself," he said. "So then this should be an interesting match to watch indeed."

"What about anybody else?" Dawn asked. Everyone replied with a no.

"My match isn't scheduled until tomorrow," May said. "So this should give me the entire day to train."

"Hey Dawn," Drew said. "Perhaps you should consider watching us battle to get a feel for what it's like to really be a coordinator."

"O.K.," Dawn said. "Sounds like a great idea."

* * *

Soon afterward of finishing their breakfast, Ben, along with Harley and Professor Oak, went by the mansion to pick up some of Ben's pokemon while everyone else went off to do whatever they could, being that no one had to battle for the day. After picking up the three pokemon he planned on using for battle, Ben, Harley, and Oak all made their way into town to the spot Ben's battle was to take place.

"This is really exciting!" Professor Oak exclaimed. "Of everything I have seen, not once have I been to a tournament just to watch all these battles!"

"I take it you don't get out much," Harley said.

"You know you could be right," Oak said. "I have been stuck in a lab for quite a number of years with the exception of my outings every now and then."

"I also heard that you were the expert in poetry, if I'm not mistaken?" Ben asked.

"I am indeed a poet," Oak said. "And now it's time for some of my famous poetry."

"We're here," Ben said suddenly before Oak could begin. The trio stopped and saw where Ben's battle was to take place. "Of course, kind of ironic for you, eh Professor?"

"Indeed," Oak said with a laugh. "I didn't expect us to end up at a poetry club of all places. Odd place for me to be in to watch your battle Ben."

"I'll say," Harley said before the three ventured in. Walking in, they were greeted by dimmed lights and jazz music playing in the background. They walked down a flight of stairs, stopping at the bottom and taking a look around. People sat at various tables, talking amongst themselves or keeping quiet as they listened to the jazz music. The rythm of the beating drums, the sound emitting from the saxophone eased the three within minutes of just entering.

"Wow!" Harley said. "The music is so peaceful here! I feel completely relaxed."

"I know the feeling," Ben said, equally relaxed.

"I feel like quoting my favorite verses," Oak said, pulling out his poetry book. As he was doing so, a few people suddenly turned their heads toward the trio and all stared right at them. Suddenly, everyone started to murmur and point at them.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Harley asked.

"Well, Professor Oak is famous for his poetry," Ben said. "Kind of a bad idea bringing him to a poetry club."

"Very," Harley said as the music stopped. Everyone then got up and began advancing toward the three, quickly backing them up against the wall.

A few words could be heard from them as they crowded them such as, "It's him! I can't believe he's here!" and "It's the poetry Professor! He's come at last!" The crowd of people continued crowiding the three, mostly trying to get to Professor Oak as Harley and Ben were getting trampled.

Suddenly, all chattering stopped and all eyes turned to the stage as the beating of drums began beating fast. Sitting at the drums was a teenaged boy wearing what seemed to be a seventies groove outfit. He wore one of those round flat hats and wore groovy glasses. "Yo chill out dawgs!" he said in a soft tone. "Give some room here for the Prof and friends. Or else I'll have to clear out all you hogs."

Like that, the crowd dispersed, returning to their seats, their eyes still on Oak as they did. The three just stood there, unsure of what was going on. Harley was the first to speak up after a few moments of silent staring. "Wh-What just happened?" he asked.

"Nothing to be concerned about, bro," the guy said. "Just keeping the peace. Course, it is an honor having the famous Professor Oak here. He's sort of like our idol, the man who inspires us to take up poetry."

"Well isn't that nice?" Oak said. "I'm glad to know that my reputation precedes me."

"Right on brother," the guy said. "Name's Walter. What may I do you for?"

"I'm actually here for a battle," Ben said. "I'm scheduled for a battle today and it's supposed to take place here. I'm Monday E."

"Well isn't that a coincidence," Walter said. "I'm Monday E as well. Looks like you're my opponent bro."

"You're kidding," Harley said. "This guy's the guy you have to battle?"

"What's wrong with that?" Ben asked. "Walter seems to be an all right kind of guy."

"He's a little too weird to me," Harley said.

"Well he seems to be likable," Ben said. "And besides, I have to battle him if I want to stay in this tournament."

"Whatever," Harley said.

"So," Ben said, unclipping a pokeball from his belt. "Shall we begin this battle?"

"Make the first move bro," Walter said, mimicking Ben's movements. "Go, my little Slakoth of a summer's breeze!"

* * *

Elsewhere in the city, Soledad and Tara were out shopping together at the mall, going to places they both liked while Brock and Conway were left holding the bags. "This is quite new," Tara said. "I've never done anything like this before. Feels kind of fun!"

"Everybody enjoys shopping," Soledad said with a smile, browsing through some shirts. "And the best part about doing it is that the guys get to carry all the stuff for you." Tara smiled a little, enjoying the time spent with Soledad.

"It's nice," Tara said. "I'm normally just a loner, but I never knew having friends such as you could be nice." Soledad just smiled again, happy to hear that Tara was having a wonderful time.

Outside, Brock and Conway were sitting on a bench, waiting for the two to come out so they could get going. "How did I wind up getting into this predicament?" Conway asked himself.

"I don't know," Brock said. "I was hoping to come shopping by myself and you decided to tag along."

"Yeah," Conway said. "Then somehow we ended up being the carrier boys to them." The two fell into silence again, unsure of anything to say until Brock suddenly got up and began walking off. "Hey wait! Where are you going?"

"Bathroom," Brock replied. "I'll be right back." Conway groaned, having to sit here all by himself, bored as he could be. Minutes seemed to be hours as he sat there, waiting for either Brock or the girls to come back. He was wishing he had brought his laptop with him instead of leaving it back at the hotel. It would at least give him something to do to occupy his time. He rested his elbows on his knees and his head on his hands as he grew more bored by the second. If someone didn't return soon, he probably would have fell asleep.

However, as he was starting to drift off, he glanced to his left to see a crowd of people gathering over by the fountain, yelling and cheering someone on. "Must be a battle going on over there," he thought as he got up. Watching the battle would hopefully be more interesting than sitting on a bench watching a bunch of bought clothes. Conway could hear shouts and hollers being diverted to what was going on. "Excuse me," he said, pushing through the crowd. "Bored techie coming through."

The crowd opened up some to allow Conway through. He hoped he hadn't missed the battle as he made his way through. Otherwise, it'd be right back to boredomville again. Luckily for him, it seemed like the battle had just begun. Glancing to his right, he saw a very blond hair girl wearing what appeared to be a super cute dress.

"Who dresses like that these days?" Conway asked to himself, taking note of a few freckles on her face. She happened to have had a Spoink standing on the edge of the fountain, staring into the water, obviously looking for the opponent pokemon.

The trainer opposite the girl had red hair with a ponytail to one side. She wore what seemed to be a red shirt underneath a small, yellow jacket. She also wore a yellow skirt. Conway looked over at the fountain in time to see a Goldeen jump up into the air and then back into the water. From what Conway could conclude, the girl on the right was into super cute pokemon while the girl on the left was into water pokemon, or at least, he hoped.

"What's the matter?" the red hair girl asked tauntingly. "You afraid you're going to lose?"

"As if," said the other girl. "I'm just busy planning your defeat and my victory."

"We'll see about that," the red hair girl said. "Now Goldeen, use Horn Attack!" Conway watched as the Goldeen swam in a circle around the middle part of the fountain, gaining speed before slingshooting itself towards the Spoink.

"Quick Spoink!" the other girl commanded. "Dodge it!"

("Right,") the Spoink said, bouncing to the side using it's tail as the Goldeen jumped out of the water and tried striking it with her horn. She missed, unfotunately, shooting out over the edge of the fountain and down towards the ground.

"Use Surf!" the red hair girl quickly ordered. The Goldeen quickly summoned out a tidal wave at last second, using the force of the wave to flip herself back into the water, which was a huge success, if not out of sheer luck.

"Amazing!" Conway thought awestruckingly. "She managed to save her Goldeen from becoming an easy target. Quite clever."

"Give it up," the other girl said. "You can only go so long before losing against me."

"I could say the same thing," the red hair girl said. "Now Goldeen, use Water Sport." The Goldeen stuck her head up above water and spat out a steady stream of water at Spoink.

"Some people never learn," the girl said with a sigh. "Spoink, dodge that attack."

"Attack?" Conway wondered. "Water sport isn't an attack. It's a move that weakens fire type. But why would she order a move that won't have any effect on a Psychic type?" As Conway was wondering about this, the Spoink continued dodging the Water Sport, bouncing all around the fountain until he made a complete round around the fountain. The moment he got back to the spot he started at, his tail slid on the slippery surface of the concrete that the Water Sport wet.

"Oh no!" the trainer cried out as her Spoink splashed into the water. "Spoink!" It all became clear to Conway then that that was what the plan was all along. Get the Spoink into the water and claim the advantage to victory. A shame he left his laptop back at the hotel.

"Now Goldeen! Use Horn Attack again!"

"Spoink! Get out of there!"

Goldeen swam at Spoink, horn glowing as Spoink tried righting himself to hop out. Unfortunately, due to the water slowing his descent, the Spoink only had enough time to right himself before the Goldeen made contact with him, stabbing him hard in the side with her horn and ramming him into the concrete of the fountain.

"Spoink!" the Spoink's trainer cried out, unable to see the result of her Spoink's fate. Minutes passed as no sign of either Spoink or Goldeen could be seen. Finally, a sillouitte appeared beneath the water. Everybody held their breath, waiting to see who's pokemon would show up. Finally, the pokemon surfaced, swirls in its eyes.

"No!" she cried. "Spoink!"

"You know I don't think you're cut out for battling much," the red haired girl said. "Maybe you should just call it quits."

"Ha!" the girl said. "I never give up a fight that easily. That was just a warm up. Now the real fight begins."

"Seems pretty stubborn," Conway thought as she recalled her Spoink and grabbed out another pokeball. "That will be her ultimate downfall."

"Now Abby!" she said, throwing her pokeball high into the air. "You're up for battle!

* * *

In yet another part of Angelinic City, Tracy was sitting upon a bench, busy sketching a group of pokemon playing around with one another. Being a sketcher was something Tracy always enjoyed doing so that one day, he could assist the person he always dreamed of assisting. And now his dream has been fulfilled. And as of right now, he was actually participating in a tournament. He couldn't really remember the last time he participated in anything. This was sure to be fun.

"There," he said as he finished sketching. "Picture perfect!" He stared at his sketch, admiring every little detail he had drew. A lot of people, he knew, could draw pokemon. But it took someone with really good skills and a lot of experience to catch the inspiration of what the pokemon were doing. Happy with his work, Tracy closed up his sketchpad and placed it back in his backpack. It was time to move on and see what else he could draw.

Slinging his sack over his shoulder, Tracy got up and began walking off in another direction. However, he didn't get too far, for his attention was immediately attracted to a rather large group of people crowding around the post office. This could only mean that there was a battle going on.

Walking over and having to push through the crowd, Tracy soon stopped and stared at one of the battlers battling. The brown, spiky hair gave it all away as to who it was. All Tracy did was smile and fold his arms, staying to watch the battle. The spiky hair trainer had out a Nidoqueen. Across from him was his opponent who had long, messy hair and wore untucked clothing. A clear sign of someone messy, obviously. And he had out a Doduo.

"Now Nidoqueen!" the spiky hair trainer yelled. "Use Iron Tail!" Nidoqueen roared out in understandment before rushing at the Doduo, her tail glowing silver.

"Doduo, dodge and use Fury Swipes," the other trainer said. Doduo cawed as Nidoqueen began to swing her tail around. However, just as she was about to make contact, Doduo suddenly leapt into the air, avoiding the attack. Then, Doduo began coming down on Nidoqueen, their feet sharpening up for an attack.

"Protect!" the spiky hair trainer said. Nidoqueen quickly threw up a green barrier just before Doduo's talons could strike. The barrier rippled as the talons struck it instead, cancelling out the attack. "Now Mega Punch!"

Nidoqueen reared back her fist, the barrier disappearing as Doduo was still in the air. Nidoqueen rushed forward, her fist glowing. Doduo wasn't even back on the ground as Nidoqueen's attack made contact with him, sending him flying right at a mailbox, banging one of his heads on it, knocking it into unconsciousness.

The other head, still conscious, tried getting the body up, but without the other head awake, it was terribly off balance. Trying with all its might, the body would not stay up straight. After several attempts of struggling to get up, the head gave up and cried.

"Is that the best you got?" the spiky hair trainer asked. "Because if the last two pokemon are as weak as your Doduo, then this match will be over way too quickly."

"I was only testing you," the other trainer said in a rather bored tone. "I just wanted to see what I was up against, that's all."

"Well now you know," the spiky hair trainer said. "So quit stalling and send out your next pokemon."

"Fine then," the other trainer said, returning his Nidoqueen and pulling out another pokeball. "Sheesh. Lighten up your attitude dude. It's only a battle."

"We'll see," the spiky hair trainer said as his opponent sent out his second pokemon.

* * *

"Now Beautifly!" May shouted out to her pokemon. "Use String Shot!" The butterfly pokemon shot out a thick strand of webbing from its nostril, aiming at Drew's Masquerain.

"Use Whirlwind!" Drew ordered. Masquerain flapped its wings fast, creating a powerful gust of wind. The String Shot lost speed and soon became nothing more than just a flimsy piece of silk thread.

"Now Beautifly," May said. "Use Psychic!" Beautifly's eyes took on a blue glow, the silk taking on the same blue glow as well as the silk thread came to life and instantly wrapped around Masquerain.

Drew smiled, running his fingers through his hair. "You know you've gotten pretty good since your time in Hoenn," he said. "It' seems like only yesterday when I met you. Sniveling hard worker you were."

"And I remember how obnoxiously stuck up you were," May replied. "You've changed a lot as well. And I know that this match is far from over."

"You're right on that," Drew said. "Now use Hidden Power."

While May and Drew went on with their practice battle, Dawn stood on the sidelines, watching them battle, using the attacks in different styles she would have never dreamed of doing. She would definitely have to use some of these tricks in future contests.

"They're so cool!" Dawn thought excitedly. "So this is what it's like to watch two experienced contest trainers to battle against each other. It's so magnificent!" Though she couldn't help but feel though she was a bit out of their league. Sure she managed to beat May back in the Wallace World Cup Tournament, but she still felt like she was still in her rookie stages. Was it just pure luck that she won all those contests she won at? What about the times she lost? Did that mean she would lose as often as she did? She wasn't sure.

She mentally slapped herself, snapping back into reality. "Why am I doubting myself like this?" she thought to herself. "If I think like that, I'll get myself all worked up and lose. Just think positive."

"Ah!" she heard someone say. "I didn't expect to run into you here."

Dawn turned about, seeing who the speaker was. "Oh!" she said. "It's you!"

* * *

I've been thinking about this for a while whether or not to accept OCs. But I've decided to accept them in the end anyway. Of course, I already have the winner picked out, but if you want an OC to make an appearance in this story, then just give the following information down below.

Name:  
Age:  
Appearance:  
Personality:  
Pokemon: (you can list the moves too. Up to six)

I can't guarantee that all the OCs are going to be used. Just keep an eye out for your OC to make an appearance. Hope you enjoy and leave many reviews! ^^


	13. A Stylish Battle

Chapter 12: A Stylish Battle

Out from the pokeball formed a gray furred sloth like pokemon. He stood there, swaying back and forth, back and forth. His eyes were droopy, almost looking like he could fall asleep. The Slakoth yawned lazily, not even seeming aware that it was in battle. Behind him stood his master, Walter, who was waiting for his opponent to send out his pokemon.

"So a Slakoth eh?" Ben said, enlarging the pokeball he held in his hand. "Well I was hoping to have a bit of a challenge." Walter smiled, his head resting on his hands as they rested on the drums. All around people watched as Ben threw his pokeball up into the air. "All right Bre! Time to show everyone what you got!" Bursting out from the ball formed a butterfly with big red eyes.

"Hmm," Walter said. "A Slakoth against a Butterfree. This should be quite a match."

"You have no idea," Ben said. "All right Bre. Let's start things off with Whirlwind."

"Double Team," Walter said. Ben's Butterfree, Bre, began flapping her wings fast. Slakoth, though still looking as tired as he was, copied himself into three Slakoths as Walter beat against the drums three times. The Whirlwind had no effect on the copied Slakoths. All the attack did was blow a lot of stuff around the club.

"Sorry about that," Ben said. "Guess I'll have to keep a lid on using wind attacks."

"Right on, bro," Walter said, beating a tune. "You know what to do." The Slakoths charged forward, separating and surrounding Bre, before leaping up at her, claws straight and sharp. Just as the Slakoths slashed their paws downward, Bre stopped flapping her wings and fell to the ground, only to snap them open up again before impact. The attacks the Slakoths were using all hit each other where Bre used to be. This canceled out the other three Slakoth clones, leaving only one left.

"Twirling Psybeam attack!" Ben ordered. Bre crossed her arms in front of her face and used Psybeam on them as she began to spin upward toward the falling Slakoth, the Psybeam enveloping her body in beautiful rainbow colors.

"Interesting," Walter said as Bre made contact with Slakoth.

"Let's just say I get inspired watching contests," Ben said, relaxed.

"A Butterfree in rainbow's shine is a pokemon quite divine!" Professor Oak quoted. "Hey! That had a nice ring to it."

"You rock Professor!" someone from the audience yelled.

"Loved your poem!" another said. "I'll be sure to keep that written down!"

"Quite the fanbase you have here," Harley said. "But that was quite cool. How'd you come up with that trick, Ben?"

"Like I said," Ben said, looking back at Harley and smiling sheepishly. "Inspiration!"

"We're not down and out just yet," Walter said as he tempoed really slowly on the drums. Slakoth hopped up onto a table and swayed back and forth, yawning. A pink bubble formed and began swaying its way over to Bre.

"All right Bre," Ben said. "Go with the flow!" Bre began swaying as well though matching opposite to Slakoth. Every time he swayed left, she swayed right. And vice versa for when he swayed right. One by one the pink bubbles bypassed Bre, popping as the spectators grabbed something sharp to pop them with so as to not get hit by the attack.

"I see now," Walter said calmly. "You managed to train your Butterfree to match opposite the pattern of Slakoths."

"You catch on quick," Ben said.

"I'm lost now," Harley said. "What's going on?"

"Quite simple Harley," Oak said. "You know how the pattern of Slakoths and Vigoraths are. The pattern they both used vary in speed. Slakoth has a slow pattern while Vigorath have a fast pattern which throws off the guard of the opposing pokemon once they're switched out. Ben managed to train his Butterfree to match opposite Slakoth's slow pattern. If Slakoth sways one way, Bre will always sway the opposite way, and so one from there."

"I think I get it," Harley said, not quite sure of himself.

"Just watch and you'll see," Oak said.

"All right Bre," Ben said. "Let's see about wrapping things up Giga Drain." Walter beat the drums rapidly. Recognition lit in the Slakoth's eyes as Bre began to twirl vertically. Slakoth focused his energy as small orbs began circling around him. As his energy began to delplete, the orbs all closed together before disappearing inside Slakoth. Moments later, a volley of yellow stars shout out from Slakoth's mouth, aiming right at Bre as his energy continued to be quickly sucked away from him. The Swift, however, though managed to make its way to its target, all passed by Bre as she angled herself, tilted another way, began spinning the opposite direction, and even doing a few flips to avoid the stars. And all this time she managed to keep her concentration on Slakoth, draining him of all his strength.

Barely able to stand any longer, Slakoth slumped to the ground, feeling rather exhausted. Walter beat the drum with both his hands at the same time before crossing them and lowering his head. Slakoth closed his eyes and began breathing slower. "Now Bre. Use Psychic." Bre's eyes glowed blue, the same coloring enveloping the Slakoth. Bre reeled the Slakoth in fast toward her, using Fury Swipes quickly as the Slakoth was mere inches from her. "And follow it up with Shadow Ball!"

Forming a black ball of energy in her mouth, Bre fired the shot full force at Slakoth, releasing her Psychic hold on him as he went flying back, his heading hitting the railing by the stairs before falling to the ground. "Oops!" Ben said, rubbing the back of his head. "Might have overdid it a bit."

"No harm done," Walter said. "He'll be all right." Slakoth was returned to his pokeball. "That's one for you, bro."

"Sure is," Ben replied calmly. "I have a feeling though what pokemon is up next."

"You are correct on that," Walter said, opening up his second pokeball. "Now my fast tempo friend of an autumn's breeze. Let's make like the wind and blow away our opponents with ease."

* * *

"You've got to be kidding me," the red haired girl said as she stood there dumbfoundly. "Of all the pokemon you could have chosen, you chose a ridiculous pokemon such as her?"

"Abby is not ridiculous!" the other girl yelled back. "Abby's the most specialist of cute Abras there are in this world."

"Yeah?" the red haired girl asked. "How?"

"You just don't understand because you don't see the true cuteness of a pokemon," the other girl said dreamily, both hands on her face while her eyes were closed and blush formed on her face.

"Give me a bucket," Conway thought, an eye twitching. The girl must have had the same thought in mind due to the disgusted look on her face.

"You know," she said. "There's a lot more to pokemon than just how cute they look. Prime example, my Goldeen."

"Oh please!" the other girl said, sticking her nose into the air. "Goldeen are pure ugly." A vein showed in the red head girl's head. That definitely got to her.

"I'll show you what ugly can do!" she practically screamed. "Goldeen, use Iron Tail!" Goldeen swam at Abby, her tail glowing, ready to strike. Jumping out of the water, Goldeen pivoted her body, going to strike Abby. However, at last second, just before Goldeen could strike, Abby vanished. A couple gasps could be heard throughout the crowd as Goldeen landed back in the water. Abby appeared a second later upon a different spot of the fountain.

"Teleport works real well," Abby's trainer said. "Perfect for dodging every attack."

"You're just being a coward!" the red head girl said.

"Says the girl who had her Goldeen use Surf so she wouldn't lose," the other girl said.

"That wasn't cowardness," said the red head girl. "That was being smart."

"Denial!" sang the other girl.

"Tch!" the red haired girl said, clearly annoyed as she held up her pokeball. "All right, Goldeen. Return!" A red beam shot forth from the ball, enveloping the Goldeen before retreating back, the Goldeen disappearing inside the ball.

"Calling it quits already?" the girl asked. "Wise choice. I know I would have."

"You got it all wrong," the red hair girl said, earning a scowl from her opponent. "I'm not some opponent who gets worked up over something like this, even though I did just so happen to lose my temper for you insulting my Goldeen. But anyway, don't expect me to give up that easily. If I was like that, I wouldn't be a good trainer, let alone run a gym all by myself."

"A gym?" Conway thought. "This girl's a gym leader? Interesting. But which gym leader she is remains a mystery."

"All right Staryu," the red hair girl said. "You're up!" Out from the ball came a brown star, spinning around before landing right on the side his trainer was on. In the center was a ruby or jewel of some sort.

"Oh please," the other girl said. "Don't tell me you really wish to continue. You're just stalling."

"Says the girl who talks to much," said he gym leader girl, earning a glare from her opponent. "Now Staryu. Water Gun!"

("On it,") Staryu said as he shot water out from the tip of his point at the top. Abby, however, teleported once more, ending up at a different spot on the fountain, causing the gym leader to growl.

"Now use Swift!" she said. Staryu fired off a volley of yellow stars, but again, Abby teleported. But this time, she didn't appear anywhere. "Hey! Where'd it go?"

"Should have given up when you had the chance," the other girl said. Laughing could be heard from above. Looking up, both the gym leader and Staryu saw Abby up in the higher part of the fountain, looking down upon them and laughing.

The gym leader growled again, annoyed that she was being tempted to be annoyed like this. "What do I do?" she thought to herself. "If I send Staryu up there and order another attack, she'll just teleport again. There has to be another approach to this. There just has to be." As she thought about how to get Staryu up there and order an attack without the Abra teleporting, an idea suddenly came to mind. "That's it! That's how I'll win this!"

"Looks like you have no choice but to give up now," the blond hair girl said. "What a shame."

"This match is far from over," the gym leader said, causing another scowl to escape the blond hair girl. "Staryu, use Rapid Spin around the tower."

("Right,") Staryu said, leaping into the air and spinning around the tower.

"What are you doing?" asked the blond hair girl as Staryu spun around and around. Even Abby didn't know what was going on as she watched from above. Soon, Staryu's Rapid Spin began creating a cyclone that began climbing up the tower. The cyclone soon reached the top and shot over Abby who was now a little nervous as what was about to happen.

Suddenly, Abby felt herself floating into the air. It was then she realize what was happening. She went to go teleport, but lost all concentration as the current of the cyclone pulled her in and spun her higher and higher. "Abby!" cried the blond hair girl.

"All right Staryu," the gym leader said. "Let's finish this in one blow." Staryu flung himself free from his spinning, making a wide round about before spinning upwards toward the Abra who was now falling after the cyclone stopped.

"Quick Abby!" the blond hair girl cried. "Use Teleport!" However, Abby was too freaked out to even here her trainer's command. All she did see was something spinning toward her really fast. Next thing she knew, she went flying down right back into the fountain, hitting the bottom hard and blacking out. "Abby! No!"

"Like I said before," the gym leader said as Staryu returned to where he started before. "I'm not the type that gives up just like that. If that's all you've got, then you're not worth my time."

"I'll show you," the blond hair girl said, recalling her Abra. "Now, time for you to lose for good this time. Go! My undefeated pokemon!"

* * *

"All right, Fearow! You're up!" said the messy looking trainer as he threw his pokeball forward, the ball opening up a second later to reveal a rather large, brown feathered bird with a long beak.

"You're not serious," said the spiky hair trainer. "You lost one bird. Save yourself the trouble and surrender now. It's obvious you don't care about this battle."

"You're wrong," the messy looking trainer said. "I'm going to win and have my rule seen through throughout this city."

"This match should be over shortly," Tracy heard the spiky hair trainer mumble. There was no doubt in his mind that that's what would happen, knowing the trainer. "All right now Nidoqueen. Let's start things off easy with Horn Attack!"

Nidoqueen let out a roar before charging at the Fearow, her head lowered with her horn pointed out. "Now Fearow, fly up," ordered the messy hair trainer. The Fearow cawed, replying to the order and flew into the sky just as Nidoqueen made her way to him. "And now use Drill Peck!" Fearow's beak began spinning as he divebombed Nidoqueen, wings tucked flat against his side.

"This is too easy," the spiky hair trainer said. "Nidoqueen, grab him." Nidoqueen waited until Fearow was right on top of her before grabbing Fearow by his beak, stopping the attack. Being that the Fearow's beak could no longer spin, the spin had to continue, and it just so happened that Fearow's entire body spun. "Now use Slam!"

Raising Fearow up, Nidoqueen brought him down to the ground, slamming him hard into it before letting go and jumping into the air, slamming down on Fearow. "Tch," Fearow's trainer said, recalling his Fearow.

"Stop wasting my time!" yelled the spiky hair trainer. "It's obvious you're going to lose this battle. And you're not even attempting to try."

"That's what I want you to think," said the messy looking trainer, whipping out his last pokeball. "But here is where it all stops. You're up now!" With that, his final pokemon emerged forth from the ball.

* * *

"Been a while, hasn't it Dawn?" Tyler asked as he came stroding up.

"It's only been a few days I suppose," Dawn said. "But what brings you by here?"

"I was just on my outing, stopping to watch a few battles and I just so happened to pass by here," Tyler said. "I recognized your green hair friend and was surpirsed to see you here as well. Not too good with remembering some names though."

"No need to worry," Dawn said. "I'm sure once you learn his name enough, you'll start remembering."

"Possible," Tyler said, turning his attention to May and Drew as they continued battling, unaware of Tyler being there. After a few minutes of watching the two, Tyler turned again to Dawn and asked, "Are those two coordinators as well? I'm only asking because of the way they style their pokemon's moves."

"Yeah," Dawn said. "They're the best!"

"The best?" Tyler asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Well, May's traveled with Ash throughout Hoenn and Kanto," Dawn replied. "And it's only through Drew and her other contest rivals that she's grown stronger."

"And what about you?" Tyler asked. "Do you think you've grown quite stronger with the help of your rivals?"

"I'm not really sure," Dawn said, a little quieter than normal. "I mean, sure I've won a contest or two, but I seem to just have bad luck in a contest. I should have up to at least four contest ribbons by now, but every time I'm out there on the stage to give it my all, I never make it through."

"But you have your friends with you too, don't you?" Tyler asked. "Don't they support you?"

"Well they do give me words of encouragement before the contest starts," Dawn said. "But when something goes wrong, I panic and mess up even more trying to correct whatever does go wrong. In the end, I always lose." By this time, Dawn was feeling completely depressed, reflecting back on all the contests she had lost more than she had won. She could feel her eyes watering, the tears wanting to let loose. Suddenly, she felt a hand gently place itself upon her shoulder.

Looking up, she saw Tyler standing next to her, his eyes filled with compassion and understanding. "I know exactly how you feel," he said.

"Y-You do?" Dawn asked, shocked.

"I do," Tyler said. "When I first began my pokemon journey, I've lost so many times rather than winning that I almost gave up on even trying to become a good trainer."

"So what happened that made you want to try again?" asked Dawn.

"I met someone who shared some wise words of wisdom with me," Tyler said.

"Who?" Dawn asked again.

"You know his name escapes me," Tyler said. "What I can remember is that he wore a hat and had a Pikachu on his shoulder."

Dawn gasped in shock and surprise, not expecting to hear this. "Wait! Then does that mean you met Ash before?"


	14. Speed, Strength, and Bond

**Sorry for not updating this story lately. The main reason I haven't updated first of all was because no one seemed to enjoy that this story had no plot. Well I'll tell you all something. There is a plot. It's going to be some time though before the plot comes to pass. The first week of battling brings in a lot of old characters from som really old shows. And then half way through the second week the plot will finally begin to build up before the plot finally hits by the end of the third week. So I know it may take forever, but that's what making a good story is all about. A good story takes some time to have the plot build.**

**Now there's a second reason as to why this chapter has not been updated faster than I expected. Several weeks ago a storm blew its way here and knocked down the Internet. Now normally it takes maybe like a day or two before the Internet runs smoothly again, but this time the Internet stayed down. Sure it would come back up, but it would go down again in less than five minutes. So someone had to come out and take a look at it and in the end it seems like I'm going to be losing the Internet, meaning I'll have to go elsewhere to write future chapters.**

**Anyway, there's a certain author I would like to thank for getting the spark back in me for writing this chapter. So thank you ravengal! And I hope you keep up with those two stories of yours: Pika/Bun One Shots and IToD. So enjoy this chapter and please leave your reviews.**

Chapter 13: Speed, Strength, and Bond

A white furred pokemon on two legs and two sharp claws popped out from its pokeball, bouncing back forth on its legs, looking quite eager to battle, unlike its pre-evolved form Ben had just barely managed to defeat. It's claws were just as sharp as it's previous form, if not sharper than his. "Time to beat up the tempo," Walter said, beating against the drums a little faster than normal with his Slakoth. "It's your move, my bro."

"Think I'll just stick with Bre for now," Ben said with a smile.

"Is he nuts?" Harley asked. "The pattern completely changed. Pokemon who go up against Slakoth and then Vigorath will be thrown off and lose easily."

"I wouldn't underestimate Ben's Butterfree," Oak said.

"Huh?" Harley asked. "What do you mean?"

"Trainers who try and beat a Vigorath after beating a Slakoth don't really take care of the difference of speed between the two, which is why they easily lose after. But Ben seems to have absolute confidence, which means that he might have a plan cooked up."

"You're not really making a whole lot of sense right now, Professor," Harley said.

"Just watch," Oak said. "I'm sure it will all be clear to you during this second round." Harley turned his attention back to the battle as Vigorath rushed forward, his claws glowing as he started swinging wildly in an attempt to slash Bre, but only winded up hitting air as Bre managed to somehow dodge every attack.

"Amazing!" Harley said amazed. "Ben's Butterfree is actually dodging the attack like she managed to quickly adapt to the speed change."

"Like I just stated," Oak said. "Ben had something cooked up when he chose to keep his Butterfree out. It seems like Ben managed to train his Butterfree to quickly adapt to the speed of Slakoth and its evolved forms."

"You're quick on the dot, aren't you Prof.?" Ben asked, his head turned slightly with a smirk upon his face.

"I was once the great sketcher back in my days," Oak said. "So observing is something I tend to do and take notice of." Suddenly, Bre cried out in pain as one of Vigorath's claws managed to make contact with her, leaving a rather nasty scratchmark on her body.

"I see you trained your Butterfree well," Walter said.

"Yeah," Ben admitted a little sheepishly. "Of course, Bre can't always be good when battling against Vigorath. It's kind of a fifty-fifty chance of her winning or losing. It's about as good as I could train her really."

"Bre certainly is an interesting pokemon indeed," Walter said. "But not even pokemon like her would be able to stay in rhythm to the switch out. Now Vigorath use wild slashing Fury Swipes." Vigorath moved at the speed of light, moving himself in front of Bre as he began to wildly slahs his arms about, Bre doing her best to dodge the wild slashes. Unfortunately, most of the swipes managed to catch her on her body and on her wings. The attack kept up, Bre growing tired with every passing second. More blows began to be dealt to her body until she finally couldn't dodge them any longer.

"We got her now," Walter said, smirking as Vigorath finally managed to hit Bre, leaving nice sized scratches upon her body. "And now Reversal!" Vigorath ceased his nonstop swiping and elbowed Bre in the gut. Bre felt the air leave her as she went flying back into the wall, leaving a ratehr nice imprint of her backside upon it before falling onto the ground, unconscious.

Walter beat the drum three times, smiling as he looked up at Ben. "Apparently we are now tied one for one."

"Seems like it," Ben said, holding up Bre's pokeball. "You done a good job Bre. Get some rest. Return." Bre was called back inside her pokeball, being placed back on Ben's belt before another pokeball was grabbed. "I knew bringing him was a good idea. This pokemon's quite the fighter in my group. Bruzol, you're up!"

Sending the pokeball up into the air, the ball opened up, relasing a white light that formed into a familiar sea otter with two tails known as Buizel. "I'm pumped and ready for action!" he said, getting into a fighting stance.

"Strongest fighter eh?" Walter said. "We shall see about that. Vigorath, let's start things off with an uprising winddraft of Bulk Up!" Vigorath's muscles grew as a red light enshrouded him.

"Bulk Up," Harley said, watching the start of the next battle. "Doesn't that riase both attack and defense of a pokemon?"

"It certainly does," Professor Oak said. "Buizel can learn it too, though I wonder if Ben's Buizel knows it at all."

"All right, Bruzol," Ben said. "Start things off by using Agility!" Bruzol leapt at Vigorath, his speed increasing as he ran closer.

"Smash down like a tree with Brick Break," walter said as he gave one hard smack on the drum. Vigorath raised an arm up and brought it down as Bruzol ran right underneath it, but dodged out of the way at last second.

"Now Focus Punch!" Ben ordered. Bruzol leapt right at Vigorath, his arm glowing as he made contact with the Vigorath's face at an incredible speed. Several people had to leave their table as the Vigorath crashed down upon it, bounced off, and landed on another table, breaking it as well.

"Amazing!" Harley said, his mouth agape. "It's like watching a battle of speed and strength. You just don't know who's going to win."

"Indeed," Oak said. "The difference between speed and strength makes the battle draw its length. Oh! That was a good one!" Oak grabbed out his poetry book and wrote it down, having several of the people watching look over his shoulder as he wrote.

"Not bad," Walter said as Vigorath got up. "Your Buizel is strong, but my Vigorath is stronger."

"But when it comes to speed Bruzol is unmatched," Ben said.

"We'll see about that," Walter said. "Now Vigorath, Double Team!" Walter beat on the drum fast once again as Vigorath copied himself into several clones.

"Not so impressive the second time," Ben said, resulting a bit of a frown to come from Walter. "Bruzol, Sonic Boom!" Bruzol leapt into the air, his tail glowing white before releasing multiple sonic waves, all of which quickly hit every Vigorath before Walter could order an attack. "And then use Water Pulse!"

As the last of the Sonic Booms hit the final Vigorath, Bruzol already had a blue sphere formed within his paws. Spinning around in mid-air, he released the attack on the remaining Vigorath. "Forceful Focus Punch!" Walter commanded. Vogorath's paw glowed as he reeled it back and struck the Water Pulse, which activated upon hitting his fist. Water drenched over him, drenching his fur as a light purplish tint was added to his eyes.

"All right!" Ben said. "He's confused." Everyone watching awed in impression as they watched the Vigorath wildly slash around his claws in the air, striking at nothing.

"I have to give you credit for that maneuver," Walter said, regaining his composure.

"Thanks," Ben said. "I had a feeling you were going to have your Vigorath use an attack on the Water Pulse to negate it, so Bruzol had it set to activate the moment it was hit."

("You better believe it,") Bruzol said, folding his arms and turning to the side, smirking.

"Indeed," Walter said. "But I think it's high time to wrap this up. Now Vigorath, let's use the final move of the battle. Focus Blast!" Hearing the command of his trainer and despite being confused, Vigorath turned towards Bruzol, looking directly at him as an orb of a light orange color formed in his claws.

"Hmm," Oak said. "It seems to me that Vigorath, despite being confused, is actually going to get the attck to hit dead on. This is one of the few times a confused pokemon actually manages to hit its target without missing."

"I wonder how Ben's going to deal with this," Harley thought out loud.

"All right Bruzol," Ben said. "Let's use our ace in the deck. Aqua Jet!" Bruzol unfolded his arms and got back into his battle stance, bending his legs as water began to enshroud his body. Using his feet, Bruzol shot off the ground and sped right at the Vigorath as the orb was just neared charged.

"Can you feel that?" Harley asked. "It's like you can feel the strength of that Aqua Jet."

"I feel it too, Harley," Oak said. "That kind of power can only be felt from a trainer who trains their pokemon exceptionally well. Ben has definitely trained his pokemon to emit off that kind of strength."

By this time, Bruzol had reached Vigorath, aiming directly into the Focus Blast orb and causing a detonation, one which filled the club up with smoke. No one could see anything, being that they had their eyes closed and were coughing. This went on for several minutes before the smoke began clearing up. Both Ben and Walter remained silent as they both awaited to see if they're pokemon were still standing. As the smoke cleared, both pokemon soon became visible, everyone suprised to see the two lying unconsious upon the ground.

"Wait!" Harley said. "Bruzol clearly had the upperhand. So why has he fainted?"

"While Vigorath had more strength and less speed to deal with, Bruzol was the complete opposite," Oak explained. "Being that Bruzol relied more on speed than strength, his defenses were left wide open and the blast did a considerable amount of damage to him, resulting in a one-hit K.O. to be exact."

"Oh!" Harley said. "That makes sense."

"So it seems like we're tied two for two," Ben said. "Which only leaves us one pokemon each to battle with."

"Quite right, bro," Walter said smiling as he recalled his Vigorath, Ben recalling his Buizel. "So this last battle will determine who gets to move on and who gets to leave."

"Sounds about right," Ben said, grabbing his last pokeball and enlarging it, Walter doing the same. "Blake, you're up."

"Go my lazy winter day Drowzee!"

* * *

"Awww!" the red headed gym leader squealed as she stared at her opponent's final pokemon. Everyone who was gathered around the fountain watching the battle also awwed and stared as the cute, cuddly brown bear with the crescent moon upon it's head gazed back so adorably, placing a paw up to his mouth. "He's so cute!"

("Do I really?") the Teddiursa asked, tilting his head, causing everyone's heart to melt, all except one, that is.

"Big deal," Conway thought. "So it's cute. I'd take the initiative and attack. From the way things look, I'd have to say that the Teddiursa hasn't been used in battle a lot. Only for main distractions."

"Hmph," replied the gym leader's opponent. "I told you that this pokemon was undefeatable. You're too busy admiring such a adorable pokemon as he that you can't even attack. If I were you I'd surrender for being unable to land an attack on him."

The gym leader quickly shook her head, snapping out of her trance. "You must be joking if you think I'm just going to surrender. I've actually had a situation involving a rotten Teddiursa, so I'm not that gullible to surrender. Now Staryu, Water Gun." Staryu shot off a stream of water at the Teddiursa, knocking it off the fountain.

"Oh no!" the trainer said, rushing over to her pokemon. "Teddiursa, are you all right?" All she got in response though as she helped her pokemon up were tears of fright. Teddiursa then took off running, wanting to be away from the battle. "Teddiursa! Wait!" The girl turned to the red haired gym leader and pointed a finger at her. "How dare you harm my darling Teddiursa. You'll pay for this, mark my words." With that the girl ran after her Teddiursa. The crowd watching the battle all began to disperse the area, all talking amongst each other about how lame the battle ended.

"Staryu, return!" the gym leader yelled, recalling her Staryu within the pokeball. "Some people shouldn't even be in battles."

"I couldn't agree quite more," Conway spoke up as he walked over to her. "She was all talk. I could have finished her in half the time you did."

"Uh... thanks, I guess?" the gym leader asked, loking a little annoyed.

"You mentioned you were a gym leader," Conway said. "Which gym do you keep charge of?"

Before the red hair girl could answer, there was a yell from behind. "Hey Conway!" came the familiar yell of Brock as he, Soledad, and Tara all came walking over. "Where'd you go? No one was watching the bags when I returned. I thought you were."

"Oh!" Conway said, remembering that he was keeping watch over the bags. "I'm so sorry. I got caught up in a battle here."

"Brock!" the gym leader said, rushing forward and giving him a hug. "What are you doing here? It's so good to see you!"

"Misty?" Brock said surprised. "What are you doing here? Don't tell me you're in the tournament too."

"Well I wouldn't be here if I wasn't," the gym leader, Misty, replied.

"Good point," Brock said.

"So I take it that you're here in the tournament too?" Misty asked rhetorically.

"I'm not the only one," Brock said. "Ash and May are here too. And these are some friends we've met in our journey." Introductions then all went around as Misty was introduced to Soledad, Tara, and Conway, the last creeping her out a bit since he was studying her.

"Well it's all very nice to meet you all," Misty said. "I should probably let you get back to your shopping though."

"Nonsense," Soledad said. "I think we've done enough shopping for today. Why don't we catch up with everyone? I'm sure Ash and May will be happy to see you again."

"Thank goodness," Brock and Conway thought as the five began making their way out from the mall, the guys having to carry a heavy load of store bought items.

* * *

"You're joking me, right?" the spiky hair trainer yelled. "Are you even taking this battle seriously? I mean you've already lost two pokemon and I'm still on my first."

"Whatever man," the messy hair trainer said. "I'm just here to win it."

"If that's the kind of attitude you're going to have then why become a pokemon trainer in the first place?" asked the spiky hair trainer.

"Whatever," the messy hair trainer said. "Are you going to attack or what? I'm getting bored over here."

"Fine then," the spiky hair trainer said. "Now Nidoqueen, use Earthquake." Nidoqueen roared in understandment as she smashed a foot down upon the ground, causing the entire ground to shake, causing people watching the battle to stumble around, a few falling onto the ground. However, the Nidoqueen's opponent, which just so happened to be a Farfetch'd, flapped its wings, rising into the air, avoiding the attack altogether.

"Now use Cut," the messy hair trainer said. Farfetch'd flew directly at Nidoqueen, taking the stick that was in his beak out into one of his wings, raising it up and coming directly down on Nidoqueen. Nidoqueen staggered back a bit, the attack stinging upon her chest, but not by much.

"Pathetic," the spiky hair trainer said. "You're not even worth the time to battle. Nidoqueen, wrap this up with Stomp." The Nidoqueen rushed forward at Farfetch'd, the stinging in her chest not hurting her that much as she leapt into the air and prepared to stomp Farfetch'd into the ground.

"Use Aerial Ace!" the messy looking trainer said. Farfetch'd leapt back and immediately snapped his wings open, taking flight as Nidoqueen landed, her foot leaving a rather nice sized crack where Farfetch'd stood not moments before. Looking up into the sky, Nidoqueen watched as Farfetch'd banked around before beginning to dive bomb, his speed increasing and his momentum building as his beak grew sharper. "Got it all bagged up in one."

"Wait for it, Nidoqueen," the spiky hair trainer said. "Wait until it gets close." Nidoqueen stood her ground as Farfetch'd grew more speed and momentum as he neared Nidoqueen. His wings were level as he was about mere inches from striking Nidoqueen when suddenly, Nidoqueen raised up an arm, her eyes narrowed, and brought it down, managing to negate the attack and shove the bird pokemon's head into the ground.

"Farfetch'd!" the messy looking trainer cried out as Nidoqueen removed her paw from the pokemon's head. Farfetch'd was clearly knocked out from the Nidoqueen's strength. "Tch." The messy trainer returned his Farfetch'd and drew out the card he held, throwing it to the spiky hair trainer. "Here man. You can have this. This tournament is lame."

The spiky hair trainer remained silent as his opponent turned and walked away, passing through the crowds, all of which were beginning to disperse themselves to talk over the battle. Only one remained however and walked up to the spiky hair trainer. "Kind of a shame he isn't in tune with his pokemon, isn't Gary?" Tracy asked. "Kind of like someone else we know."

"Yeah," the spiky hair trainer, Gary, said as he turned to look at Tracy. "So what brings you to Angelinic City? Out sketching as usual?"

"Some what," Tracy replied. "I've enetered the tournament just like you. Even assistants need a break from the lab every now and then to get out and battle, right?"

"They certainly do," Gary said. "And I have a feeling my old rival's somewhere too."

"You guessed right," Tracy said. "Ash already had his match for this week, so he's out training his other pokemon."

"Maybe I should go see how much stronger he's become since last we saw each other," Gary said. "You know where he's training at?"

"Not entirely," Tracy said. "But he should be back at the hotel we're staying at by tonight, so you can catch up with him there."

"Sounds good," Gary said, returning his Nidoqueen before he and Tracy walked away from the post office.

* * *

"Well," Tyler said with some hesitation upon Dawn's question. "I wouldn't really say I've met Ash. He isn't the kind of guy to pass along such wisdom as this trainer did. He more or less originated from the Orange Islands if my memory recalls correctly."

"Well then it can't be Ash," Dawn said. "He lives in the Kanto Region."

"Quite so, quite so," Tyler said as May and Drew suddenly rushed over.

"Dawn," May said worriedly. "Are you all right?"

"No need to worry," Dawn said. "I was just listening to some of Tyler's past adventures."

"Oh!" May said. "I didn't recognize you there for a moment Tyler. What brings you here?"

"Just strolling around, stopping and watching battles," Tyler replied. "I happened to notice that you two were doing a bit of battling. Practicing for your upcoming battles no less."

"More or less," Drew said. "I have a feeling though that you're not just here to watch us battle."

"You think so, do you?" Tyler asked, taken by surprise.

"Oh I get it," May said, getting on to what Drew meant.

"What?" Dawn asked. "What do you get?"

"It's nothing," Drew said after a smirk, running his fingers through his hair as always. "But anyway, I think we've done enough battling for today. Can't wear our pokemon out before our battle."

"That's true," May said. "Wouldn't you agree Beautifly?"

("I do,") Beautifly replied with a nod. ("I'm wiped.")

"Guess that settles it then," Drew said. "Besides, I am hungry for luch."

"Me too," May said.

"I'm for that," Dawn said.

"Excellent then," Tyler said. "How would you all like to eat out? We can meet up with the others after we eat."

"Sounds good," May said. "Knowing Ash, it would take forever to find him and stop his battling long enough for him to eat." Everybody laughed at that, knowing that that was most possibly true.

"You're right about that," Dawn said. "When it comes to Ash, battling and food are the only two things that are always on his mind."

"Yeah but we may run into him at a restaurant or something," Drew said.

"Speaking of restauarants," Tyler said. "Our stomachs won't be getting any fuller just standing here."

"Then what are we waiting for?" May asked. "Let's go!" May, Drew, Tyler and the pokemon all began walking ahead with Dawn in the rear, lagging behind, back deep in thought over what she thought earlier before Tyler showed up. However, she was snapped back out of her thoughts as a hand suddenly extended in front of her.

"Coming?" Tyler asked, standing before her with a concerned look on his face.

"Oh!" Dawn said, blushing a little as she took his hand. "Yeah. Of course."


	15. Sleep Fighting

**Well all I can say is that it's about time for an update with this story. I can't believe I let it go for so long. No Internet at the house plus me always running around and never having time to get here to write equals a very long and slow update. On the plus side, I already have the next chapter in progress of being written. When it will be up, I really can't say. May be a few months before I update again. I'd explain the situation of my writing to everyone, but I bet you all are eager to read this chapter so I shall be silenced! Enjoy the long awaited updated chapter!**

Chapter 14: Sleep Fighting

Bursting out forth from the two pokeballs thrown into the air appeared a small, blue dragon type pokemon with a hard, white skull cap on its head, landing in front of Ben while the oother pokemon was a short, stout hypnotic pokemon with a trunk for a nose, landing in front of Walter. The two faced each other, the dragon pokemon growling and rearing to go while the hypnotic pokemon looked quite relaxed, not even seeming to be aware that he was about to face off with an opponent.

"That Drowzee doesn't seem to be the least bit concerned about Ben's Bagon," Harley said. "Yet it seems that the Bagon is the complete opposite from his opponent."

"Almost like yin and yang," Professor Oak said. "I can't quite explain to you in detail about how the pokemon are feeling, but what I can tell you is that Drowzee is giving off an aura that's causing a drive within Bagon to beat it. The most relaxed of pokemon drives the counterpart's fire."

"Yeah," Harley said. "Like that makes much sense to me."

"All right," Blake," Ben said. "Let's start things off with Hidden Power."

("Right,") Blake said as small, sphere like orbs encircled him, spinning around and around at an increasing speed before scattering about, flying under and over tables, several people jumping out of their seats as the orbs all made their way toward the Drowzee.

Walter banged both his hands on the drum and said, "Now use the unpredictable power of Confusion!" before beating the drum at a fast pace. Drowzee lifted up his hands just as the orbs were about to hit him and stopped them short, smirking at Blake.

("You honestly didn't think it'd be that easy now, did you?") he asked as he shot the orbs back in the paths they came, all heading back toward Blake.

"Protect," Ben ordered just as the orbs were about to hit Blake. Blake quickly threw up a gren barrier, the orbs flying straight into it, leaving Blake unscathed.

"Not bad, bro," Walter said. "Quick on your feet to use a defense such as that."

"You haven't seen anything yet," Ben said quite calmly. "The final battle has yet to be decided."

"Right on, bro," Walter said as he started playing a slow, steady rhythm on his drum. "You know the cue, my friend. Drowzee stared right at Blake as he placed his right foot out and raised up a paw, motioning for the Bagon to come straight at him.

Blake took the bait and came charging right at him, a blue claw enveloping his paw without being ordered to do so. However, instead of striking directly at the Drowzee, Blake jumped to the left, swinging at nothing but air before crashing right into a nearby table. The people sitting there scattered out of their seats to avoid having their legs crushed by the collapsing table "Of course," Ben said as he watched his Bagon get up and wobble around. "You had your Drowzee use Swagger."

"Indeed I did," Walter said with a smile. "Raises the attack of your opponent's pokemon high, but instantly confuses them. Let's see how well your Bagon can fight when it has no clue to where my Drowzee dissappeared off to." Ben returned his attention to the spot where the Drowzee stood, only to see it standing there no more.

Ben glanced around, scanning for any signs of the Drowzee's whereabouts. "He must be hiding under one of the tables," he thought as he looked at each table individually, dually noting that the tablecloths were draped over each table, going all the way down to the floor. "But which table is he hiding under?" Blake was still wobbling around a little, trying to catch sight of where the Drowzee was all the meanwhile trying to shake off the confusion. "Blake, focus on using Hidden Power and do just as you've done before," Ben ordered. Blake shook his head as he concentrated on forming more orbs encircling his body. "You're doing great! Keep it up!" The orbs continued to spin, increasing in speed before scattering out, zooming under every table in the club and smacking straight into the wall. The speed of the orbs caused the tablecloths to flap, leaving a bit of a gap for Ben to quickly look under. Unfortunately, Ben had not sighted any part of the Drowzee hiding under a single table as the tablecloths became still once more. However, Ben remained calm, not seeming too worried about where the Drowzee was at the moment. "Now Blake, use Focus Energy." Blake stopped wobbling and began to focus his energy, building it up in power.

"Trying to rid the effects of Confusion, are we?" Walter taunted. "I cannot allow that to happen." He banged both his hands upon his drum and said, "Use the surprise attack of Shadow Ball!"

"Double Spin Dragon Claw!" Ben ordered. Blake broke off from his concentration, now free from the confusion, as a Shadow Ball shot out from underneath the table from Blae's left side. Acting fast, Blake quickly formed a Dragon Claw over each paw and spun around, batting the Shadow Ball toward another table of people.

"Now Dragonite!" Professor Oak said, quickly throwing out a pokeball. "Intercept that Shadow Ball!" A large, orange-scaled, two legged dragon with wings on its back burst forth and moved at a swift speed to intercept the attack, taking it head on.

("Erg!") Dragonite yelled out. Though the attack wasn't that strong to take him down, it did more than enough damage to make the attack sting some.

"Sorry, Professor," Ben said sheepishly. "Guess I wasn't thinking there."

"It's quite all right," Professor Oak said. "I'm just here to make sure nobody gets hurt."

"Some good you've done so far," Harley thought as Ben ordered a Rock Smash from Blake to use upon the ground. Blake's paw glowed as he smashed down upon the ground, hard, cracking the floor beneath him. The shockwave sent the tablecloths flapping about wildly this time. Ben glanced in the direction the Shadow Ball shot out from and saw nothing at first, but then thought he saw a bit of the Drowzee's feet from underneath trying to regain balance.

"There, Blake!" he said, pointing at the table. "Use Dragon Claw!"

"Zen Headbutt," Walter said, smacking one hand on the drum this time. Drowzee came flying out from under the table he was hiding under, a blue energy power emitting from his head as he landed a hit on Blake who went flying into yet another table, the people sitting there scattering out from their chairs as Drowzee disappeared underneath another table.

"He's using the table covers as an advantage against Bagon," Harley said. "Ben and his Bagon can't see which table he moves under. There are so many! He could move around and strike from anywhere."

"It is indeed a clever strategy," Professor Oak agreed. "But I have a feeling that Ben will find a way to turn this battle around."

"Use Shadow Ball again!" Walter commanded. Another black energy ball came flying out from two tables over from where Blake crashed, the attack making direct contact with the table, incinerating it completely.

"I guess that's it," Harley said. "There's no way Bagon could have taken that and still be standing."

"You underestimate the bond between pokemon and humans, Harley," Oak said. "I can sense that Ben is pretty powerful and if he's as strong as I think he is, then so is his Bagon." Harley only stared at Professor Oak before looking back to where the Shadow Ball made contact, the smoke beginning to thin out. As the smoke cleared, people all gasped in surprise, seeing nothing left of the table but tiny pieces of wood and a bit of the tablecloth partially burned.

"Where'd he go?" a girl asked. "He just disappeared!"

"He didn't get incinerated, did he?" asked another.

"So explain to me again about the bond between pokemon and humans, Professor," Harley said, not looking completely surprised while Professor Oak looked slightly surprised.

"That can't be right," he said. "I was sure Ben's Bagon was powerful. There's no way I could have been mistaken."

"Quite the turn of event, bro," Walter said. "Using one of my own tactics against me." By this time, Drowzee had poked his head out from the table he was under, scanning around for Blake, yet not seeing him anywhere. "Sadly, there's a lot of difference between your Bagon and my Drowzee. Use Confusion!" Drowzee focused his energy and raised up the tablecloths to expose Blake, but Ben was quicker on his feet.

"Now use Rock Smash!" he ordered. Blake came shooting out from under a table the moment the tablecloths were up, hitting Drowzee upon his side. Drowzee hit the floor and bounced into the air. "And now use Dragon Claw!"

As a blue energy claw enveloped Blake's claw, Walter beat the drum three times in a set of two, like the beating of one's heart. "Hypnosis!" he said, smiling. Drowzee snapped open his eyes, a red glow enveloping them and staring straight at Blake who leapt at him, ready to strike. Being that Blake was staring right at the Drowzee, he therefore could not turn, and fell straight asleep. "Now let's wrap this up with Shadow Ball!" Walter yelled out, excited by the turn of events.

"Hit him, Blake!" Ben yelled out as Drowzee began forming his attack. Everyone watched as Blake pulled back his paw and struck it forward, hitting Drowzee dead on. Needless to say, the exploded, a small explosion at that since it had no time to grow in size. The Drowzze fell to the ground as Blake did a flip, his paw glowing once more. "And now Rock Smash!" Blake rose up his paw and brought it crashing down upon the Drowzee. The Drowzee flew straight into the floor, leaving a rather nice sized crack beneath him. Blake landed on both his feet, not even once leaning in any direction to sleep.

"Th-That's impossoble!" Harley said. "A pokemon can't attack while they're asleep unless they have Sleep Talk. And Bagon can't learn that move. It must be some kind of trick."

"I doubt it was quite a trick, brother," Walter said as he leaned upon his drum, his arms supporting his head. "I must admit though, that's one unique Bagon."

"Thank you," Ben said. "Blake's my toughest fighter out of all my pokemon. Bruzol comes in second next to him. I did more training with Blake than any of my other pokemon to handle battles such as this one. Sleeping, poisoned, paralyzed, or even frozen, Blake's never a quitter. He strives to win battles despite his condition."

"So then that would make him a sleep fighter," Walter said before chuckling, the chuckling growing into a laugh. "I have to admit, brother, that this was quite the interesting battle! Your Butterfree was quite interesting matching the opposite of motions and your Bagon's a fighter, even in his sleep!" By this time, Blake's head was bowed, a clear sign that he had entered a deep sleep.

"All my pokemon are unique in their own ways as well as yours and every trainer's around the world," Ben said.

"Right on, brother," Walter said, taking out his pokeball and recalling his unconscious Drowzee. "I'd like to get the chance to battle all your pokemon some day in a six-on-six match."

"That's going to have to wait, though," Ben said.

"Quite right," Walter agreed. "Well my friend, you've definitely won the right to advance to the second week. You may be wanting this to find out where your next battle will take place. Taking out something from his shirt pocket, Walter threw the object at Ben who caught it, examining what he caught.

"That's right," he said. "The winners receive a card that dhows where they'll be battling next week."

"Right on!" Walter said as Ben returned Blake to his pokeball. "A shame that my journey ends here, but watching others helps one grow in both battle and friendship between humans and pokemon."

"Well said!" Professor Oak said. "Took the words straight out of my mouth."

"Say Professor," Walter said. "Mind sticking around for a while? I'm sure everybody here would enjoy some of your famous poetry works."

"Well why not?" Oak said as he walked up to the stage. "I always enjoy sharing some of my famous lines to others."

"But what about getting back to the others?" Ben asked.

"Oh don't worry about me," Oak said. "I'll catch up with everyone later."

"If you say so," Ben said as he began climbing up the steps.

"I guess it's okay as long as you don't get lost," Harley said as he followed after.

"The one who gets lost is the one who knows not," Oak versed. "And when one does get lost, they ask Wynaut?" The crowd erupted from their seats hooting, hollering, blowing whistles, and even applauding as Ben and Harley walked out from the club.

* * *

About five blocks away from where Ben and Harley were was the familiar raven-haired trainer with a yellow electric mouse upon his shoulder. At the current moment, the two were wandering around the town, seemingly coming from somewhere in search of raven-haired trainer lifted up a hand to his pokemon and scratched him upon his head. ("That feels good!") the pokemon said happily, enjoying the feeling. Hearing his pokemon enjoying the treatment, teh trainer smiled, glad to know that his pokemon never disliked anything he did.

"We did a good job today, didn't we buddy?" he asked.

("Definitely!") Pikachu cheered happily.

"I'm surprised by how strong they're all getting," Ash said. "I never realized just how strong they were." Of course, both trainer and pokemon knew just how strong each pokemon was. After all, they had traveled through several regions to battle the pokemon leagues, though there were some pokemon who needed much training such as Gliscor who was still afraid of things that were scary. "Just imagine! You and me becoming rulers of this city. We could set our own rules and invite pokemon from all over to live here if they wanted."

("I suppose,") Pikachu said with slight satisfaction. True, it would be nice to be in charge of the rules for a year, but that would mean that they would have to stay in the city during that time, missing out on Pokemon Leagues they could be traveling to, fighting gym leaders for their badges. It was definitely something worth checking into. Ash and Pikachu's thoughts were brought back to reality as the sounds of their growling stomachs told them that they needed food.

"Oh yeah," Ash said, completely forgetting what it was he was searching for in the first place. "I forgot we were looking for a restaurant. We did rush out skipping on breakfast after all."

("Yeah,") Pikachu said. ("I'm famished!")

The two continued looking around for a place to eat, the aroma of food making their mouths drool more and their stomachs growl louder. ("There!") Pikachu yelled out, pointing in a direction after several minutes of walking around. Ash turned his attention to where Pikachu was pointing.

"Hey!" he said. "Not a bad place! Good job, Pikachu!"

("Don't mention it!") Pikachu said as Ash rushed for the restaurant. The smell of food hit both nostrils all at once as they entered, their stomachs growling to be filled.

"Oh man!" Ash said. "I'm in paradise!"

("I could eat until I pop!") Pikachu said gleefully.

"Well, well, well," someone suddenly said, catching both of their attention. "I had a feeling I'd wind up seeing the both of you here. Of course, when it comes to appetites, buffets are something I know you'll clear out in no time, isn't it Ash?"

"Gary!" Ash said in surprise, spotting the spiky hair trainer. "What are you doing here?"

"Don't tell me you didn't think I'd miss an opportunity like this," Gary said. "I may be a scientist now, but when there's a tournament being held, you can expect me to show up."

"And it just so happens that Gary beat his opponent for the week," Tracy said from behind him, or rather in front of him.

"What really?" Ash asked surprised.

"You should know just how strong my pokemon are," Gary said. "After all, I did almost have you beat in the Johto League."

"You were close all right," Ash said. "I guess I can say I was lucky enough to win that match."

"Sure, sure," Gary said. "Whatever you say. Since you guys are here, we can all get on the same ticket together."

"You sure?" Ash asked.

"We are old rivals after all," Gary replied with a smile.

"Thanks, Gary!" Ash said. "It means a lot, you know?"

"No sweat," Gary said as he, Ash, and Tracy paid their way in and walked in to find a place to sit.

"Man this place is packed," Ash said. "There's barely any place for us to sit."

"Hey Ash!" a feminine voice called out suddenly. The trio of boys turned their attention to the one callign Ash's name to see a very young looking girl with blond hair waving out to them in a booth. "Tracy! Over here!" "Heather!" Ash said, walking over to her with the other two trailing behind. "What are you doing here?"

"I got hungry so I just picked a random place to eat at," Heather replied. "What a coincidence running into you here. Who's your friend?"

"This is my old rival Gary," Ash replied, introducing him to Heather.

"A pleasure to meet you," Gary said.

"Right back at you," Heather replied with a wink as Pikachu spotted Rosie sitting on the floor eating a bowl of scraps.

("Hey Rosie!") Pikachu said climbing down off of Ash.

("Well hey there good looking!") Rosie said. ("Glad to see you again!")

("Thanks,") Pikachu said, slightly uncomfortable being called good looking by another female pokemon whom he clearly told he had a girl of his own, but he decided that she meant it all in good fun.

"Why don't you guys sit here since there doesn't seem to any other place to sit?" Heather offered.

"Sounds great!" Tracy said. "We'll be back in a minute." The trio of boys went and grabbed their plates full of food before joining Heather and Rosie again and chatting the day away.

* * *

Four blocks from where Ash, Tracy, Gary, and Heather were eating, Ben and Harley also found themselves a place to eat out at, though it wasn't anything big like a buffet or any kind of fancy restaurant. "A burger joint?" Harley questioned. "You want to eat at a burger joint?"

"A bit cheaper than those bigger restaurants," Ben said.

"I suppose so," Harley said as the two headed for the door.

As they were about to enter, a voice called out, "Ben! Hey, Ben!" Ben stopped and turned toward who had called out his name to see Brock, Conway, and Soledad sitting at a table with two unknown girls he had never met before.

"Oh! Hey Brock," he said, shifting his direction over to where Brock and the others sat. "Didn't think I'd be seeing you here."

"Yeah," Brock said. "Restaurants are just crowded all over, This was the best place we could find to eat."

"Well it is the first week of the tournament," Harley said. "So of course there are going to be people filling up restaurants."

"Indeed," Soledad said with a nod.

"So who are these two?" Ben asked, referring to the two girls he had never seen before. "I think I may have recalled seeing you, but not you for sure," he said, referring to the red headed girl.

"I'm a very old friend of Brock's," she said. "Misty waterflower, gym leader of Cerulean City."

"You're a gym leader, huh?" Harley questioned as he found a chair and pulled it up to sit.

"Maybe not as any good as my sisters, but I'm still a little stronger, I suppose," Misty admitted.

"Don't be so modest," Conway said. "I saw you battle your opponent, though she was kind of a ditz battling you."

"That's for sure," Misty said.

"Well if you're as strong as you say you are, you definitely won't have any problems getting through the next few weeks coming," Ben said. "But time can only tell."

"I'm sorry," Misty said. "I don't think I know you."

"This is Ben Byers," Brock said, introducing him. "We met him right before the start of the tournament and let me tell you, he has a way with his pokemon similar to how Ash is with his."

"Huh," was all Misty said, looking quite intrigued about Ben's bond with his pokemon. "Speaking of whom, how is Ash doing?"

"Considering that he battled his opponent yesterday and won, I'd say he's doing a rather excellent job in keeping his pokemon in tiptop shape," Harley answered her.

"So he won after all," a new voice said, turning all eyes upon who spoke. "Sounds to me like he's a strong trainer."

"You have no idea," Dawn said as she, Drew, May and Tyler walked over upon spotting the group.

"Hey guys!" Brock said. "What brings the lot of you here?"

"We were all heading out to lunch when we spotted you here," May said to him.

"If I had known you were all going to eat lunch together I definitely would have paid for everyone," Tyler said.

"Say," Misty said. "Aren't you Tyler Ronando?"

"That I am, my dear," Tyler said with a slight bow.

"No way!" Misty said astounded. "Tyler Ronando is actually treating us out to lunch!"

"Tyler kind of befriended us when we first arrived in Angelinic City," Dawn explained. "Who are you supposed to be anyway?"

"Oh right," Misty said, recovering from her shock. "I'm Misty Waterflower from the Cerulean City Gym."

"Water based types if I'm not mistaken," Tyler guessed.

"You mistaken not," Conway said. "I first handedly her entire battle, so only I know her strategy!"

"Yeah," Misty said, feeling slightly uncomfortable. "So who are you? I take it you know Ash."

"I do," Dawn said. "My name's Dawn and I'm training to become a Pokemon Coordinator like May."

"Oh cool!" Misty said. "Why don't you join us? I'd like to get to know you Dawn."

"That'd be all right, wouldn't it?" Dawn asked the others.

"Of course," Drew said. "It'd be nice to get to know one another while we're in this tournament."

"And it'd be nice to catch up with you too, Misty," May said as everyone grabbed seats and gathered around.

* * *

From across the plaza from where the group sat, not one of them was ever aware that they may have been being watched upon from a red headed, pig-tailed woman sitting on a bench with a pair of binoculars, watching the large group eat. Sitting next to her was a lavender haired man about the same size and age as her, wearing a classic suit, a snazzy looking top hat, and a mustache. At his feet was a cat-like pokemon with a charm upon his head, watching many people pass them by. At the moment, the man was eating a hotdog he had bought from a vendor and was happy enjoying the taste, but noticed his partner staring right at the group they sat across from.

"You know something, Jess," he said. "It throws suspicion towards us if we're watching them. There might be cops around so you might want to lower those binoculars before we get caught and thrown out of the tournament."

"Well how else are we supposed to keep an eye on our enemies?" Jesselina asked. "If we're going to be able to advance in this tournament, we need to study their unique talents of battle and use them to our advantage."

"Doubt that's going to be useful," James said. "Not every trainer is going to battle with the exact same style pattern. We always have to expect the unexpected." Meowth looked up at them and nodded in agreement.

"Well then," Jessie said as she got up. "Guess I'll just have to make up my own style of battling."

"Where're you going?" James asked, getting up and watching her walk off.

"To practice making up my own style of battle," was all she said before she disappeared into the crowd, leaving James and Meowth where they were.

"Perhaps it'd be best for us to find our own style of battling as well, right Meowth?" The two just stared at each other for several seconds before James realized something. "I forgot. You can't talk during the tournament."

_"I wish I could though,"_ Meowth thought. _"It's driving me crazy that I can't!"_

* * *

The day continued to pass on by as old friends were reunited with others while being introduced to new friends. Before anyone knew it, the sun had already began to set and was slowly sinking over the horizon. "I can't believe that we spent the whole day at one table!" Dawn exclaimed. "I didn't even get any training in myself!"

"Not to worry!" Tyler said. "You still have the rest of the week ahead of you"

"Tyler's right," Soledad said. "We all have six out of the seven days to train, so you'll still have tomorrow if you're not battling."

"Yeah," Dawn said. "I guess I worry too much, don't I?"

"Hey Dawn," Drew said. "I'd like to watch you train your pokemon tomorrow if that's all right. That way I'll be able to point out the strengths and weaknesses you command them."

"Sure!" Dawn said with a smile. "Why not?"

"You wouldn't mind if I came and watched as well, would you?" Tyler asked.

"Don't you have a tournament to run?" Tara asked him.

"I may be in charge of the tournament, but that doesn't mean I can't stop and watch others battle now, does it?" Tyler asked.

"Guess he's got a point there," Harley said before Tara could open her mouth. "But anyway, the sun's going to be gone soon so I think it would be best to return to the hotel."

"Quite right," Tyler said. "I thank you all for the glorious afternoon. Meeting new people is always quite interesting."

"You have a good night, Tyler," Dawn said.

"You too, Dawn and friends," Tyler said with a bow. "Got a million and one things to do tomorrow so I'll catch up with you later." Tyler turned and walked off for his mansion, leaving the rest of the trainers to return to their hotel.

"Well," Misty said as they neared it. "Guess this is where we part tonight."

"What do you mean?" asked Brock. "You're not staying in the hotel?"

Misty shook her head. "I'm actually staying at my beach resort over by the beach. Guess I never really told you that, did I?"

"Guess it slipped your mind, hasn't it?" Brock asked with a chuckle.

"Sure has," Misty said. "I used to come here every summer when I was but a little girl, along with my sisters of course. But then we had to take over the gym business, so we had to stop coming here. You all are welcomed over at any time you like."

"We'll have to drop by there some time before the tournament is over," Ben said.

"Are your sisters there by any chance?" Brock asked hopefully, desiring to see the three beautiful sisters of Misty's.

"Don't push you luck, Brock," Misty said, eeys slightly galring at him.

"Sorry," Brock said shamefully. "Anyway, I'll let Ash know you're here. He'll be excited to know that."

"I wouldn't tell him just yet," Misty said. "Let it be a surprise. Maybe the three of us could spend the day together for old times sake."

"Yeah!" Brock said. "That sounds great."

"Awesome!" Misty said with a bigger smile. "See you tomorrow!" The group then separated for their rooms to rest in for the night to stay focused for the battles that were yet to come the following weeks.


End file.
